mm 

B 


lis 

1 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 

ENDOWED  BY 

JOHN  SPRUNT  HILL 

CLASS  OF  1889 


C2?2 
P922 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00042100671 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


'-•■■-.■'••   .-':•■■ 


The  Preaching  (or  Today 


BY 

J.  B,  GAMBRELL 
B.  IX  GRAY 
S   Z.  BATTEN 
B.  W.  SPILMAN 
Q.  €.  DAVIS 
I.  M.  MERCER 

AND  OTHERS 


The  Preaching  for  Today 

SERMONS,  PAPERS 
AND  ADDRESSES 


DELIVERED  AT  THE 

NORTH  CAROLINA  BAPTIST  PASTORS' 
CONFERENCE 

SHELBY,  DECEMBER  8,  9,  1913 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  THE  CONFERENCE 


PRICE  25  CENTS  PER  COPY,  POSTPAID 

ORDER  FROM 

J.  S.  FARMER,  RALEIGH,  N.  C 


Raleigh,  N.  C. 

Mutual  Publishing  Company,  Printers 

1914 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Introduction     3 

By  W.  R.  Cullom. 

The   Importance   to   the   Pastor  of   Spiritual 

Vision    9 

By  Frank  Hare. 

The  Apostle  Paul  as  a  Christian  Leader   ...      19 
By  J.  B.  Gambrell. 

The  Point  of  Contact 2S 

By  Edward  Long. 

The  Pastor  and  the  Intermediate  Boy   .....      40 
By  B.  W.  Spilman. 

Expository  Preaching 44 

By  I.  M.  Mercer. 

Eschatology  in  the  Pulpit:  Its  Use  and  Abuse     52 
By  Q.  C.  Davis. 

A  Voice  From  the  Pew   63 

By  T.  M.  Pittman. 

The  Service  of  the  Country  Church 74 

By  S.  Z.  Batten. 

Denominational  Christianity    97 

By  B.  D.  Gray. 

Fatherly  Wisdom  in  Heavenly  Affairs 101 

By  Charles  Anderson. 


c 

2 


INTRODUCTION 

By  W.  R.  CULLOM,  TH.  D.,  Wake  Forest  College. 

At  the  Seventh  annual  meeting  of  the  North 
Carolina  Baptist  Pastors'  Conference  in  Shelby, 
December  8  and  9,  1913,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  the  advisability  of  publishing 
the  addresses  of  the  present  Conference.  This 
committee  was  composed  of  Revs.  W.  C.  Barrett, 
J.  H.  Foster,  M.  A.  Adams,  and  J.  S.  Farmer. 
After  carefully  considering  the  matter,  the  com- 
mittee made  the  following  report: 

"We,  your  committee,  recommend  that  the 
members  of  this  Conference  pay  or  subscribe  such 
amounts  as  they  are  willing  to  pay  for  the  pub- 
lication of  the  papers  and  addresses  presented 
to  this  Conference;  and  that  the  total  amount 
shall  not  be  less  than  one  hundred  dollars.  That 
the  publication  be  distributed  to  the  individuals 
and  churches  in  proportion  to  amounts  contribu- 
ted. That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  se- 
cure bids  and  look  after  publishing  the  addresses 
and  papers  of  this  Conference.  That  the  President 
of  this  Conference  be  requested  to  write  an  intro- 
duction, giving  history  and  programs  of  former 
meetings  of  this  Conference,  and  that  this  intro- 
duction be  published  along  with  the  other  papers." 

It  is  in  response  to  the  request  set  forth  in  the 
report  of  this  committee  that  the  following  para- 
graphs are  prepared  as  an  introduction  to  this 
volume. 

Origin  of  the  Conference. 

One  man  in  the  Convention  had  believed  for 
several  years  that  an  annual  meeting  of  the 
Baptist  pastors  of  the  State  would  be  helpful  to 
the  pastors,  to  the  Convention,  to  .the  churches, 
and  to  the  Cause  of  Christ  in  general.  When- 
ever   the    matter    was    mentioned    tentatively    to 


X  -J 


4  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

some  of  our  leaders  the  point  was  made  that  the 
Convention  was  already  a  great  burden  to  the 
community  that  entertained  it,  and  to  add  one  day 
more  might  prove  to  be  the  last  straw  to  break 
the  camel's  back.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Conven- 
tion in  Greensboro  in  1906,  the  brother  in  ques- 
tion went  to  the  host  of  the  next  Convention  and 
talked  the  matter  over  with  him.  Growing  out 
of  that  conversation  the  following  minute  appears 
on  page  62  of  the  Convention  Annual  for  that 
year:  "Fred  Hale,  expressing  the  opinion  that  we 
ought  to  have  a  North  Carolina  Baptist  Minis- 
ters' Conference,  and  inviting  such  a  meeting  in 
connection  with  the  Convention  atWilmington  next 
year,  it  was  moved  by  W.  C.  Tyree,  and  adopted 
by  the  body  that  the  President  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  five  to  arrange  for  such  a  Conference. 
The  President  named  W.  C.  Tyree,  Fred  D.  Hale, 
Livingston  Johnson,  W.  R.  Cullom  and  Braxton 
Craig  as  the  committee."  In  accordance  with 
this  action  the  first  session  of  the  Conference  was 
held  in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Wilmington,  be- 
ginning Tuesday  evening,  December  3,  1907,  and 
continuing  through  the  afternoon  of  the  follow- 
ing day.  Rev.  C.  A.  Jenkens  was  elected  Presi- 
dent, and  Rev.  J.  S.  Farmer,  Secretary.  A  num- 
ber of  practical  subjects  were  discussed  by  several 
of  our  best  pastors  in  a  way  that  proved  very 
helpful  to  those  present.  A  question  box  was 
opened  on  the  second  day  of  the  Conference  with 
the  thought  that  brethren  might  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  presenting  any  special  difficulty  they 
might  think  of  in  connection  with  their  work.  One 
of  the  first  questions  to  be  read  out  by  the  Secre- 
tary was:  "Why  do  Missionary  Baptists  not  Com- 
mune with  Primitive  Baptists?"  There  seemed  to 
be  a  look  of  "I  told  you  so"  in  the  faces  of  some 
of  the  brethren,  and  that  closed  the  question  box 
business. 

Other  Sessions. 

The  second  session  of  the  Conference  was  held 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  5 

in  Wilson,  December  8  and  9,  1908.  In  the  absence 
of  President  Jenkens,  W.  R.  Cullom  was  elected 
President,  and  J.  S.  Farmer  Secretary.  From 
that  time  to  the  present  the  Conference  has  held 
an  annual  meeting,  beginning  just  one  day  before 
the  Convention,  and  holding  three  sessions  as  be- 
fore. The  Conference  has  re-elected  the  same 
President  each  year  from  19  08  to  the  present. 
Brethren  J.  L.  Vipperman,  Jesse  B.  Weatherspoon, 
and  Walter  M.  Gilmore  (the  present  incumbent) 
have  served  as  secretaries.  At  the  meeting  in 
Hendersonville,  1910,  on  motion  of  Dr.  B.  W. 
Spilman,  the  chair  was  instructed  to  appoint  a 
committee  on  nominations  at  the  opening  of  each 
annual  session.  This  committee  is  to  make  its 
report  near  the  close  of  the  same  session  and  the 
officers  then  elected  are  to  serve  for  the  ensuing 
year. 

Plans  and  Policies. 

At  this  meeting  in  Hendersonville  a  few  simple 
by-laws  were  adopted,  but,  along  with  the  Secre- 
tary's book,  they  were  soon  lost.  The  freedom 
and  spontaneity  of  the  Conference  have  been 
among  its  most  attractive  features. 

From  the  beginning,  the  State  Convention  was 
asked  to  appoint  the  committee  to  arrange  pro- 
grams for  the  following  year,  and  to  allow  space 
in  its  Annual  for  a  brief  statement  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Conference.  In  this  way  it  has 
kept  itself  tied  on  to  the  Convention,  and  to  many, 
has  come  to  be  one  of  the  most  pleasant  and 
helpful  parts  of  Convention  week.  The  programs 
of  each  session  may  be  found  by  referring  to  this 
Annual. 

It  has  been  the  purpose  and  policy  of  the  com- 
mittee on  programs  to  keep  an  eye  open  with 
reference  to  men  outside  the  State,  who  might  be 
coming  to  our  Convention,  and  to  have  one  or  two 
messages  from  such  representative  men  at  each 
meeting  of  the  Conference.  A  reference  to  the 
proceedings  of  the  Conference  will  show  that  in 


6  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

this  way  we  have  secured  the  benefit  of  such  men 
as  Dr.  Calvin  S.  Blackwell,  Dr.  J.  M.  Frost,  Dr.  A. 
T.  Robertson,  Dr.  G.  W.  Gardner,  Dr.  W.  J.  Mc- 
Glothlin,  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell,  and  Dr.  B.  D.  Gray. 
To  mention  the  names  of  our  own  State  men 
who  have  served  the  Conference  by  presenting 
papers  and  addresses  would  hardly  be  in  place 
here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  these  men  have  given 
out  of  their  best  to  this  work,  and  have  done  it  as 
a  labor  of  love.  The  assignment  of  a  subject  to 
a  brother  for  discussion  before  this  Conference 
has  seemed  to  call  forth  the  best  that  was  in  him, 
and  such  have  been  the  character  of  these  pro- 
ductions that  many  of  them  have  called  forth  an 
immediate  and  spontaneous  demand  for  publica- 
tion. Moreover,  the  high  intellectual  character 
and  the  deep  spiritual  tone  of  these  papers  and 
addresses  have  sent  us  all  home  richer  and  strong- 
er in  mind  and  heart  for  the  tasks  that  our  God 
has  assigned  to  us.  At  the  last  session  of  the 
Conference,  so  repeated  and  strong  were  the  de- 
mands for  publishing  papers  that  there  seemed  to 
be  a  sort  of  consensus  of  feeling  as  to  the  ad- 
dresses that  such  utterances  ought  to  be  put  into 
a  more  permanent  form  than  a  newspaper  publica- 
tion. A  collection,  accordingly,  was  taken  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  publication,  and  brethren  J.  S. 
Farmer,  W.  M.  Gilmore,  and  D.  E.  M.  Freeman 
were  appointed  as  a  committte  to  execute  the 
wishes  of  the  Conference  in  the  matter.  Hence 
the  present  volume. 

At  our  last  meeting  a  motion  was  made  to  re- 
quire an  annual  fee  of  one  dollar  of  each  member 
cf  the  Conference  to  be  used  in  publishing  and 
distributing  the  addresses  and  proceedings  from 
year  to  year.  To  the  great  joy  of  the  writer  this 
motion  was  tabled.  Hitherto,  as  has  been  said, 
there  has  been  but  little  organization,  and  the 
plans  of  operation  have  been  about  the  simplest 
possible.  No  time  has  been  taken  up  with  for- 
malities.    Every  Baptist  minister  in  the  State  has 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  7 

been  considered  ipso  facto  a  member  of  the  Con- 
ference, and  one  had  just  as  much  right  and  just 
as  many  rights  as  another.  The  meetings  have 
been  open  without  money  and  without  price  to  all 

preachers  and  laymen,  men  and  women  alike.  If 

it  will  not  be  considered  out  of  place  in  this 
connection  to  express  a  personal  opinion,  it  would 
be  to  the  effect  that  the  Conference  should  see  to 
to  it  that  no  red  tape  of  any  character  shall  be  in- 
troduced that  would  tend  to  break  up  this  open, 
free  spontaneity  which  has  characterized  us 
hitherto.  Of  course  we  wish  to  obey  the  scrip- 
tural injunction  that  all  things  be  done  decently 
and  in  order.  But  with  this  one  safeguard,  let  us 
as  Baptist  pastors  continue  to  come  together  in 
our  annual  meeting  with  mind  and  heart  free  to 
catch  and  express  to  and  for  each  other  whatever 
the  Spirit  may  be  saying  to  any  given  generation. 
In  this  way,  whatever  one  may  have  gained  in  the 
way  of  intellectual,  moral,  or  spiritual  attainment, 
let  him  give  his  brethren  the  benefit  of  it.  So 
shall  we  be  and  become  yet  more  and  more  ser- 
vants one  of  another. 

It  may  be  that  the  pastors  of  many  associations 
would  find  it  profitable  to  hold  an  annual  Con- 
ference on  the  day  before  the  meeting  of  their 
association.  They  could  then  discuss  questions  of 
a  more  local  nature  than  can  be  done  in  a  State 
meeting,  and  yet  some  of  the  plans  and  even  some 
of  the  addresses  of  the  -State  meeting  might  be 
carried  into  that  of  the  association.  It  has  been 
my  privilege  to  attend  one  such  meeting,  and  I 
found  it  very  helpful. 

Looking  then  to  the  Great  Shepherd  of  us  all 
for  our  strength  and  model  as  shepherds  of  the 
flock  and  ministers  of  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God,  let  us  ever  keep  in  mind  that  ideal  of  the 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles:  "He  gave  some  as  apos- 
tles, some  as  prophets,  some  as  evangelists,  some 
as  pastors  and  teachers;  unto  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints  for  the  work  of  ministration,  for  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  body  of  Christ;   until  we  all  attain 


8  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

to  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  Son  of  God,  to  a  mature  man,  to  the  measure 
of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ;  that  we 
may  no  longer  be  babes,  tossed  to  and  fro,  and 
carried  about  with  every  wind  of  teaching,  in  the 
sleighs  of  men,  in  the  cunning  craftiness  according 
to  the  wily  manner  of  error;  but  speaking  truth, 
may  in  love  grow  up  in  all  things  into  him  who 
is  the  head,  Christ;  from  whom  all  the  body,  fitly 
framed  together  and  compacted  by  means  of  every 
joint  of  the  supply,  according  to  the  working  of 
each  single  part  in  its  measure,  is  effecting  the  in- 
crease of  the  body  to  the  upbuilding  of  itself  in 
love."—  (Eph.  4:11-16). 


THE  IMPORTANCE  TO  THE  PAS- 
TOR OF  SPIRITUAL  VISION. 

By  REV.  FRANK  HARE,  Angier,  X.  C. 

Acts   26:19:      "Whereupon,    O    King   Agrippa,    I    was    not 
disobedient    unto   the    heavenly   vision." 

With  simple,  passionate  eloquence  St.  Paul  bad 
been  relating  to  the  king  the  marvelous  experi- 
ences of  his  conversion.  As  a  faithful  witness,  he 
told  about  his  persecution  of  the  church,  his 
journey  and  errand  to  Damascus,  the  light  from 
heaven  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun.  the  voice 
that  spoke  as  voice  had  never  spoken  before  to 
him,  and  his  call  to  be  an  apostle.  Then  he  begins 
the  narrative  of  his  experiences  after  conversion  by 
declaring:  "Whereupon,  O  king  Agrippa,  I  was 
not  disobedient  unto  the  heavenly  vision.*'  Not 
disobedient  unto  a  vision!  Even  so.  For  there 
is  nothing  so  commanding  as  a  vision,  an  image 
cast  upon  the  soul.  Not  even  a  giant  like  St. 
Paul,  with  his  face  set  like  a  flint  in  the  wrong 
direction,  could  disobey  it. 

We  shall  never  understand  human  conduct  or 
how  to  mould  it.  until  we  understand  the  subdue- 
ing  and  inspiring  power  of  vision.  Some  of  us 
by  sad  experience  have  already  learned  that  no 
amount  of  pure  reason,  however  logical  and  force- 
ful, will  dissuade  the  wrong  doer  or  incite  to  noble 
action  the  indifferent.  Only  an  image  of  divine 
and  awful  realities,  burnt  into  the  soul  by  a  light 
above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  will  do  this.  The 
evangelist  is  often  criticized  for  his  excessive 
story-telling  and  perhaps  rightly;  but  his  fault  is 
the  excess  of  a  virtue  and  not  a  pure  vice.  He 
knows  from  experience  that  only  preaching  that 
creates  vision  will  move  men  to  action,  and  that 
the  concrete  is  the  best  instrument  for  the  pur- 
pose. He  has  seen  the  hardened  sinner  give  in- 
tellectual assent  to  every  article  of  his  creed  with- 


10  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

out  coming  one  inch  nearer  God;  and  he  has  seen 
such  a  sinner,  while  questioning  the  creed,  fall 
upon  his  face  in  penitence  under  the  power  of  a 
spiritual  vision  induced  by  a  picturesque  setting 
forth  of  the  essential  truth  of  the  gospel. 

The  vision  is  the  most  potent  of  all  agencies 
in  dealing  with  the  human  soul,  and  for  this 
reason  God  himself  employs  it;  for  this  reason 
doubtless  he  employed  it  in  the  case  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus  whose  gigantic  intellect  and  personality 
had  thus  far  resisted  every  appeal  of  reason. 
When  God  spoke  in  terms  of  reason,  he  continued 
as  before;  but  when  God  spoke  in  terms  of  vision 
he  fell  prostrate  and  penitent  to  the  ground.  And 
if  we  will  but  think  of  it,  we  shall  recall  that 
reason  in  our  own  lives  has  influenced  our  con- 
duct little  until  it  has  been  reinforced  by  vision, 
whether  the  action  in  question  was  moral  or 
secular. 

Let  us,  then,  attempt  at  least  a  rough  analysis, 
not  so  much  of  this  vision  of  St.  Paul's  as  of 
spiritual  vision  in  general;  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
put  ourselves  in  the  way  of  its  heavenly  influences. 
In  order  to  do  this  I  have  chosen  three  typical 
visions  of  as  many  men  which,  I  think,  contain 
explicitly  what  this  vision  of  St.  Paul's  contains 
implicitly  and  potentially. 

I.  First,  the  vision  of  Isaiah  recorded  in  the 
sixth  chapter  of  his  prophecies.  It  was  in  the 
temple.  There  sat  the  Lord  upon  a  throne,  his 
train  filling  the  temple.  Above  it  stood  the 
seraphim  crying  one  to  another:  "Holy,  holy, 
holy,  is  the  Lord  of  hosts;  the  whole  earth  is  full 
of  His  Glory!"  The  very  door  posts  moved  at 
the  voice  of  them,  and  smoke  filled  the  house. 
It  was  a  moment  made  awful  by  the  immediate 
presence  of  the  infinitely  holy  God!  Then  the 
prophet  cried:  "Woe  is  me!  for  I  am  undone; 
because  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips  and  I  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips;  for  mine 
eyes  have  seen  the  king,  the  Lord  of  Hosts!"    This 


.THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  11 

let  us  term  a  vision  of  the  Unspeakable  Holiness 
of  God. 

Isaiah  was  another  man  after  this!  He  had 
apparently  preached  God's  preaching  before  this; 
he  had  pronounced  woes  upon  the  people,  being 
righteously  indignant  on  account  of  their  sins; 
but  now  having  seen  God,  the  holy  God,  he  pro- 
nounces woe  upon  himself.  Once  the  people  were 
unclean:  now  he  himself  is  unclean!  What  a 
difference  it  made  in  the  spirit  and  content  of  his 
preaching!  Once  he  denounced  with  indignation: 
now  he  warns  with  passionate,  sympathetic  solici- 
tude for  the  salvation  of  his  people.  He  still  cries 
woe.    but    in    a    new    spirit. 

The  pastor  needs  such  a  vision  often  to  keep 
him  sympathetic  and  tender,  to  prevent  his  falling 
into  the  spirit  of  phariseeism,  and  to  keep  him 
growing  morally  and  spiritually.  Having  attained 
to  higher  moral  and  spiritual  standards  than  the 
most  of  his  flock  he  is  in  danger  of  comparing 
himself  with  those  about  him  and  becoming  quite 
satisfied  with  himself.  Such  a  result  will  be  the 
grave  stone  of  his  usefulness.  That  it  may  not 
come  with  all  its  blight  upon  his  life,  let  him 
often  turn  his  gaze  away  from  the  people  and  look 
upon  God.  Paul,  before  his  vision,  was  a  good 
moral  man,  according  to  the  standards  of  his  time, 
and  a  first  rate  denouncer  of  what  he  believed 
to  be  other  men's  sins;  but  when  he  saw  himself 
in  the  presence  of  God's  holiness  lie  cried  out: 
•'Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  It  is  now 
a  question,  not  what  other  men  ought  to  do,  but 
what  he  ought  to  do.  And  all  this  change  of  atti- 
tude is  due  to  the  difference  between  vision  and 
no  vision. 

Satisfaction  with  ourselves  and  carping  criti- 
cism of  others  is  due  to  comparison  with  false 
standards.  A  pastor  of  a  large  city  church,  who 
loved  all  his  people,  rich  and  poor,  as  every  true 
pastor  does,  was  calling  late  one  afternoon  when 
he  came  upon  the  humble  home  of  a  poor  woman 
ofhis  congregation,  who  was  making  her  living  bv 


12  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

washing.  She  invited  him  in  and,  having  supper 
ready,  asked  him  to  share  her  frugal  meal.  This 
he  consented  to  do  through  fear  of  offending  her; 
and  presently  found  himself  sitting  at  table  in 
her  kitchen  which  was  thus  made  to  serve  two 
purposes.  Looking  out  through  the  window,  he 
saw  her  latest  washing  hanging  on  the  line  and 
was  struck  with  its  whiteness.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  this  woman  was  rendering  the  world  a  good 
service  in  making  clothes  so  clean  and  white;  and 
thinking  that  she  might  be  pleased  by  some 
mention  of  her  good  work  he  exclaimed:  "How 
very  white  your  clothes  are!"  "Yes,"  said  the 
woman  quietly,  "I  try  to  wash  the  clothes  of  other 
people's  as  clean  as  I  wash  my  own."  While  they 
were  eating  the  snow  began  to  fall  and  cover  the 
ground,  the  trees,  the  fences,  the  clothes  line 
posts — yes  and  the  clothes  too;  but  the  clothes  be- 
ing damp,  the  snow  on  them  melted  and  disap- 
peared; while  it  remained  on  all  else.  Thus 
the  clothes  in  contrast  with  the  snow  seemed  less 
white.  The  meal  ended,  the  pastor  looked 
out  of  the  window  again  and  exclaimed;  "Oh, 
your  clothes  are  not  so  white  as  they  were  a 
while  ago!"  "Yes,"  said  the  woman,  'they  are 
just  as  white;  but  who  can  compare  with  God's 
whiteness?"  Even  so  the  pastor  may  seem  white 
enough  when  he  compares  himself  with  the 
world  about  him;  but  when  the  whiteness  of 
heaven  falls  about  him  he  will  cry  out:  "Who  can 
compare  with  God's  whiteness?"  The  first  need 
of  the  pastor  is  a  vision  of  God's  Unspeakable 
Holiness. 

II.  The  second  vision  to  which  I  have  alluded 
is  a  vision  of  the  prophet  Zechariah  recorded  in 
the  second  chapter  of  his  prophecy.  This  young 
man  lived  in  the  days  of  the  exile  after  Jerusalem 
had  been  destroyed  and  when  the  hope  was  begin- 
ning to  return  that  the  ancient  and  sacred  city 
would  be  rehabilitated.  Of  all  the  young  Jews 
who  entertained  this  fond  hope  Zechariah  was 
probably  the  most  hopeful.      He  believed  that  th© 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  13 

city  would  be  restored,  it'  not  to  its  former  gran- 
deur, yet  to  a  semblance  of  its  former  self;  and 
while  he  was  fondly  hoping  and  dreaming,  the 
good  God  of  hope  granted  him  a  vision  of  en- 
couragement. He  seemed  to  be  standing  on  the 
site  of  old  Jerusalem,  feeding  his  hope  on  its 
possible  future.  An  angel  appeared  and  talked  to 
him;  and  as  the  angel  talked  a  man  with  a  meas- 
uring line  in  his  hand  appeared.  The  prophet,  on 
inquiry,  learned  that  this  man  was  going  to  meas- 
ure Jerusalem  to  determine  its  future  limits  and 
the  place  of  its  new  wall.  The  man  went  about 
his  measuring;  and  as  he  did  so,  a  second  angel 
appeared  and  told  the  first  angel  to  run  and  speak 
to  the  young  man  and  correct  his  plan  for  the 
city;  for,  as  the  angel  made  clear,  the  young  man, 
though  hopeful  and  courageous,  had  planned  too 
narrowly  and  the  wall  he  proposed  would  cramp 
the  development  of  the  city.  Indeed,  the  angel 
not  only  discouraged  the  narrow  boundaries;  he 
discouraged  the  placing  of  any  limits  whatever  to 
the  development  of  the  future  Jerusalem,  saying, 
"Jerusalem  shall  be  inhabited  as  towns  without 
walls  for  the  multitude  of  men  and  cattle  therein." 
No  man  must  place  limits  to  the  possibilities  of 
the  Jerusalem  to  be. 

This  we  might  call  a  Vision  of  the  Illimitable 
Possibilities  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven;  and  such 
a  vision  is  necessary  to  every  man  who  would 
work  successfully  with  God  for  the  coming  of  his 
kingdom,  and  especially  to  every  preacher  of  the 
gospel. 

The  greatest  weakness  of  the  church  today 
seems  to  me  to  be  lack  of  vision  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  kingdom  in  this  world  and  the  next.  We 
who  are  the  pastors  of  the  churches,  I  fear,  are 
no  little  at  fault.  We  are  too  small  in  our  hopes, 
our  plans,  our  undertakings.  I  have  often  thought 
that  the  kingdom  is  suffering  more  from  the  little- 
ness of  its  friends  than  from  all  the  wickedness  of 
its  enemies.  We  lack  almost  infinitely  much  of 
believing  all  things,  hoping  all   things.     We  are 


14  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

almost  willing  to  accept  the  verdict  of  the  world 
that  the  Christian  religion  is  about  "played  out. 
A  man  here  and  there  will  assert  a  limitless  hope. 
A  doubter  said  to  a  real  Christian  one  day, 
"Christianity  is  a  failure;"  but  back  came  the 
answer  straight  from  a  Christian  heart,  "No,  it 
is  not  a  failure:  it  has  never  been  tried."  Each 
of  these  statements  may  be  extreme  but  the  latter 
does  not  much  overreach  the  mark,  and  better 
become  a  Christian  than  any  compromise  with  the 
"played-out"  theory  of  Christianity.  At  best, 
Christianity  has  only  begun  to  show  what  it  can 
do  in  a  world  like  this. 

But  there  are  those  who  say  Christianity  has 
not  played  out  and  is  not  a  failure;  but  that  it  has 
done  about  all  it  can  do  to  make  the  world  better 
— has  reached  its  limit.  These  people  have  used 
the  measuring  line  and  fixed  the  limits.  And  they 
have  neither  much  faith  nor  much  wisdom.  If 
they  had  much  faith  they  could  not  think  that 
God,  after  giving  his  Son  to  die  for  the  world, 
could  suffer  such  a  defeat  as  a  check  to  the 
development  of  his  kingdom  at  this  juncture 
would  involve;  and  if  they  had  much  sense,  they 
could  not  think  that  God's  cause  can  cease  to  grow 
strong  without  growing  weak.  Such  people  lack 
vision;  and  let  the  pastor  beware  of  falling  in  with 
them  and  planning  his  work  according  to  their 
limitations  instead  of  according  to  God's  inspira- 
tions. For  Christianity  will  either  do  much  more 
than  it  has  done  or  it  will  play  out.  God's  cause 
is  like  a  great  round  burden  which  he  is  rolling 
up  the  steep  ascent  of  time  toward  eternity,  which 
will  roll  on  to  its  destination  or  come  crashing 
down  to  ruin. 

And  there  are  still  others  who  say  that  Christ- 
ianity will  do  still  more;  but  that  the  agencies 
which  were  once  mighty  are  no  longer  effective — 
that  evangelism  and  evangelists  have  had  their 
day,  that  the  prayer  meeting  has  had  its  day,  that 
the  preaching  of  a  vicarious  atonement  has  had  its 
day  and  so  on.     Well,  this  would  not  be  so  bad,  If 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  15 

something  better  or  as  good  could  be  given  us  in 
their  stead.  But,  alas,  here  is  the  trouble.  When 
evangelism  ceases  what  takes  its  place?  When 
the  prayer  meeting  ceases,  what  takes  its  place? 
Oh,  you  say,  social  Christianity,  the  gymnasium, 
and  the  like.  Well,  these  things  may  be  good  in 
their  place  but  they  are  not  good  in  place  of  the 
prayer  meeting  and  the  revival  service.  Once  the 
church  refused  to  take  its  instructions  as  to  how 
to  proceed,  from  the  world;  but  today  it  is  on 
such  friendly  terms  with  the  world  that  some  of 
its  members  want  to  discard  the  divinely  ordained 
methods  of  procedure  and  follow  Mr.  Worldy 
Wise-man  awhile.  A  little  better  acquaintance 
with  God,  a  little  more  prayer,  a  little  more  de- 
votional study  of  God's  Word,  in  short,  a  larger 
vision  of  the  kingdom  would  suggest  that  we 
have  not  yet  seen  what  God  can  do  and  will  do 
with  the  old  familiar  agencies  when  they  are  in 
the  hands  of  spirit-filled  men.  Evangelism  has 
only  begun  its  mission;  albeit  we  may  need  a  bet- 
ter type  than  we  now  have  in  some  places;  and 
the  prayer  meeting'.  Let  us  not  talk  of  discarding 
it  until  we  have  begun  to  use  it. 

The  Christian  with  a  divine  vision  of  an  ex- 
panding kingdom,  a  coming  kingdom,  is  optimistic 
enough  to  believe  that  God  will  still  use  all 
legitimate  varieties  of  agencies  for  the  saving  of 
mankind  and  that  in  his  own  good  way  and  time 
all  the  triumphant  prophecies  of  scripture  will 
be  fulfilled:  "The  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall 
cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea,"  and 
"The  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  have  become 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  His  Christ."  Or  to 
sum  up  in  the  words  of  a  great  poet,  "The  best  is 
yet  to  be." 

III.  The  third  and  last  vision  which  I  wish  to 
mention  is  the  vision  that  St.  Paul  must  have  had 
burning  into  his  soul  when  he  said: 

"Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have  ap- 
prehended; but  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the 
things  which  are  behind,  and  stretching  forward 


16  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

to  the  things  which  are  before,  I  press  on  toward 
the  goal  unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus." — Phil.  3:13,  14. 

This  I  call  a  vision  of  the  goal  of  the  human 
soul.  If  such  a  vision  fails  us,  we  shall  grow 
weary  and  discouraged,  whatever  our  apparent 
success.  Nothing  already  attained  is  ever  entire- 
ly satisfactory.  Whatever  opinion  we  may  enter- 
tain of  the  attainments  and  happiness  of  others, 
we  know  that  we  have  not  yet  attained  and  are 
not  entirely  happy — that  what  happiness  and  com- 
fort we  have  come  from  faith  and  hope  that  some 
sweet  day  life  will  be  better.  This  is  doubtless 
God's  arrangement  with  a  view  to  spurring  us 
onward  toward  a  nobler  destiny.  The  Poet  Her- 
bert in  his  little  poem  entitled,  "The  Gifts  of 
God,"  represents  God  as  having  a  glass  of  bless- 
ings, with  rest  in  the  bottom,  and  as  pouring  them 
all  out  upon  man  except  rest;  and  then  saying 
of  man: 

"Let  him  be  rich  and  weary,  that  at  least, 
If  goodness  lead  him  not,  yet  weariness 
May  toss  him  to  my  breast." 

God  will  evidently  not  let  us  be  satisfied  here 
even  if  we  would.  Emerson  perhaps  never  said  a 
truer  thing  than  when  he  said:  "We  are  en- 
camped in  nature,  not  domesticated.  Hunger 
and  thirst  lead  us  on  to  eat  and  drink; 
but  bread  and  wine,  mix  and  cook  them  how  you 
will,  leave  us  hungry  and  thirsty,  after  the  stom- 
ach is  full.  It  is  the  same  with  all  our  arts  and 
performances."  And  the  Poet  Shelley,  unbeliever 
though  he  was,  instinctively  felt  this  truth,  when 
in  his  groping  unbelief  he  so  sadly  spoke  of: 

"The  desire  of  the  moth  for  the  star, 

Of  the  night  for  the  morrow. 
The  devotion  to  something  afar 

From  the  sphere  of  our  sorrow." 

Only  a  long  look  ahead  at  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed  destiny   of   the  soul   will   finally   comfort 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  17 

and  inspire  to  noble  action  a  man  made  in  the 
image  of  God.  The  man  who  feels  that  he  has 
been  a  failure  in  the  past  and  that  there  is  noth- 
ing better  for  him  in  the  future  is  hopeless;  the 
man  that  feels  he  has  been  a  success  in  the  past 
and  can  see  nothing  better  in  the  future  is  lifeless; 
but  the  man  who  forgets  the  past  in  anticipation 
of  a  divinely  appointed  future  is  matchless. 
"What  but  this  look  afar  at  what  God  is  aiming  at 
can  put  heart  into  a  man  of  intelligence  who 
has  tried  these  vanities  of  the  world  and  found 
them  wanting — who  has  discovered  the  truth  an- 
nounced by  Emerson  that  everything  terrestrial 
has  a  crack  in  it  somewhere. 

Some  of  us  once  fondly  hoped  that  ere  long  in 
our  little  earthly  career  we  should  be  free  from 
our  selfishness  and  meanness  and  stand  forth  in 
the  world  giants  of  strength  and  righteousness, 
equipped  by  our  special  training  to  render  a  large 
and  satisfactory  service  to  mankind  in  the  name 
of  God.  But  alas,  alas!  how  little  removed 
we  are  from  the  sin  and  inefficiency  of  the  vulgar 
world!  How  unlike  what,  ere  this,  we  so  fondly 
hoped  to  be!  But  this  is  looking  back — remem- 
bering the  things  that  are  behind.  Let  us  look 
and  stretch  forward. 

If  we  do  this  we  can  say  with  Robert  Brown- 
ing: 

"What  I  aspired  to  be, 
And  was  not,  comforts  me." 

For  we  shall  know  that  the  great  thing  we 
aspired  to  be,  we  may  be  yet  in  God's  good  time. 
Though  we  have  not  yet  attained,  have  not  yet 
apprehended,  have  not  yet  been  made  perfect  and 
"it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,"  yet, 
"we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall  be 
like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is."  There- 
fore, we  can  admit  our  failures  and  still  trium- 
phantly exclaim  with  the  most  optimistic  of  all 
poets: 


18  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

"Oh,  but  a  man's  reach  should  exceed  his  grasp, 
Or  what's  a  heaven  for." 

Yes,  we  will  let  heaven  comfort  us!  though  some 
of  us  have  almost  permitted  our  worldly  wise  men 
to  laugh  the  idea  of  heaven  out  of  us.  And  there 
is,  to  be  sure,  a  conception  of  heaven  that  ought 
to  be  got  out  of  us  some  way — that  conception 
that  makes  heaven  a  kind  of  tramp  paradise,  a 
place  to  go  when  there  is  no  where  else  to  go,  a 
loafing  place  where  nothing  is  ever  planned  or 
done,  a  place  of  rest  for  those  who  have  never 
done  anything  worth  while.  But  heaven  as  the 
place  where  God  makes  his  home;  as  the  place 
where  all  the  dross  will  have  been  burnt  out  of  us; 
where  all  the  best  in  us  is  brought  forward; 
whither,  after  we  have  learned  our  lesson  in 
the  tearful  school  of  experience,  we  shall  go  troop- 
ing home  to  the  large  life  for  which  this  school 
has  prepared  us,  such  a  heaven  may  well  comfort 
us  in  this  present  evil  world;  for  if  God  be  true 
and  no  liar  we,  his  children,  shall  some  day 
come  home  to  him  never  to  return  or  wander. 

But  till  then,  what?  Well,  though  I  am  so  im- 
perfect, though  I  have  so  sadly  failed,  let  me  come 
to  God  with  my  poor  piece  of  a  life  and  say: 
"Here  I  am,  God!  Take  me  and  use  me.  Sur- 
round me  with  thy  providences  in  such  a  way  as 
to  bring  out  the  best  there  is  in  me;  or  rather 
bring  into  my  emptiness  what  good  thou  canst; 
and  use  me,  at  least,  a  little  for  thy  glory  in 
this  sinful  world;  ere  I  am  called  hence." 

Such  should,  I  think,  be  the  attitude  induced 
by  a  proper  spiritual  vision.  Let  us,  then,  wait 
upon  the  Lord  that  we  may  have  such  a  vision. 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL  AS  A  CHRIST- 
IAN LEADER. 

By  J.  B.   GAMBRELL.  D.D..  Dallas,  Texas. 

In  recent  times  some  very  bright  men  have 
been  courageous  or  unwise  enough  to  say  that 
Paul  was  a  great  mistake.  I  can  not  speak  of 
these  critics  in  terms  of  as  high  praise  as  they 
speak  of  Paul- — I  think  they  are  small  mistakes. 
The  outstanding  figure  in  the  Christian  world. 
from  Christ  this  way.  is  the  Apostle  Paul.  One  of 
his  critics  speaks  of  him  as  a  man  of  the  highest 
order  of  mind.  That  is  true,  but  that  is  a  very 
small  thing  in  the  makeup  of  the  foremost  Christ- 
ian leader,  after  Christ,  to  this  hour.  Paul  has 
done  more  for  the  enlightment  of  the  whole  world 
than  any  dozen  universities  that  ever  existed,  and 
if  his  teachings  had  been  followed,  the  world 
would  have  been  spared  the  blight  of  Romanism, 
with  all  of  its  attendant  evils. 

The  necessity  for  leaders  has  always  been 
imminent  among  men.  It  is  not  given  to  every  one 
to  be  a  leader.  There  are  special  endowments 
for  leadership,  and  these  are  God-given.  Xo 
people  advance  further  than  their  leadership.  A 
weak  and  vacillating  leadership  diffuses  itself 
downward  throughout  all  the  ranks  of  its  people. 
A  courageous  leadership  knits  up  the  strength  of 
a  people,  and,  if  wisely  directed,  insures  progress. 

Every  pastor  in  his  place  should  be  a  leader. 
"Whenever  any  one  accepts  the  care  of  a  church. 
he  accepts  the  responsibility  of  leadership  in  that 
church,  and  he  disqualifies  himself  to  be  pastor  if 
he  does  not  assume  the  function  of  a  leader.  The 
future  progress  of  the  cause  we  all  love  depends 
on  wise  leadership,  so  it  may  be  well  this  morning 
to  consider  some  of  the  elements  in  the  makeup 
of  Paul,  the  matchless  leader  of  early  Christen- 
dom.     The  elements  in  his  character  as  a  leader 

19 


2  0  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

can  be   definitely  seen  and  no  one  need  be  mis- 
taken.     Let  us  consider  them  briefly. 

In  the  first  place,  Paul  had  a  living  experience 
of  Christ,  wrought  in  his  heart.  On  the  Damascus 
road  when  he  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  and  saw 
the  light,  there  entered  into  his  soul  an  experience 
that  transformed  him.  From  that  hour,  he  was 
faced  about.  From  that  hour  his  life's  energies 
proceeded  from  a  new  center.  From  that  hour 
he  had  a  new  purpose,  and  from  that  hour  he  sunk 
self  in  Christ  and  in  the  cause  he  was  called 
to  promote.  It  is  an  evil  thing  for  any  preacher 
to  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  doubt  as  to  his  own 
personal  relations  to  Christ.  The  real  leader 
must  be  prepared  to  speak,  not  only  by  the 
authority  of  the  Word  of  God  concerning  the  great 
things  of  the  Kingdom,  but  he  must  have  that 
experience  of  heart,  which  will  make  his  testi- 
mony a  personal  testimony.  Many  a  man,  with 
poor  equipment,  has  led  gloriously,  because  of 
the  consciousness  of  the  power  of  Jesus  in  his 
heart.  Many  a  man  with  elaborate  equipment  de- 
sirable in  itself,  has  been  a  weakling  and  has  failed 
in  leadership,  because  he  had  no  vital  touch 
with  the  things  he  was  constantly  talking  about. 
If  we  preachers  are  weak  in  our  experiences,  we 
will  be  weak  everywhere.  Perhaps,  this  ought  to 
be  said,  too,  that  with  a  vital  experience  dominat- 
ing the  heart,  as  Paul  had  it  the  dangers  of  quit- 
ting the  track  doctrinally,  will  be  greatly  lessened. 
No  man  with  Paul's  experience  would  ever  doubt 
the  damning  effect  of  sin,  nor  the  glorious  power 
of  grace  to  redeem.  I  have  come  to  believe  that 
no  preacher  can  be  stronger  much,  if  any,  than  his 
personal  religious  experience. 

Then  Paul  had  a  definite  call  to  service.  He  was 
not  in  any  doubt  as  to  his  duty.  He  under- 
stood that  he  was  separated  to  the  gospel.  His 
belief  rooted  itself  far  back  in  the  divine  purpose. 
He  understood  he  was  born  for  this  definite  thing, 
tp  suffer  and  carry  the  light  of  the  gospel  into  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth.      My  brother  preachers, 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  21 

if  we  have  to  be  constantly  in  doubt  as  to  our 
divine  call,  if  we  are  oscillating  constantly  be- 
tween this  and  -that,  then  we  will  do  but  little  in 
the  ministry,  for  our  leadership  will  impart  to  the 
people,  who  should  be  followers,  the  same  uncer- 
tainty and  weakness.  Turn  where  you  will  in 
the  Bible,  and  you  will  see  that  definiteness  and 
fixedness  of  conviction  are  tremendous  elements 
of  power.  Paul  understood  that  his  whole  life 
was  to  be  given  to  the  spreading  of  the  gospel, 
and,  understanding  this,  he  cut  loose  from  other 
things  and  devoted  himself  to  the  one  thing.  It 
is  at  this  point  that  much  of  the  modern  ministry 
is  weak.  It  is  because  of  a  lack  of  definiteness 
and  strength  of  conviction  as  to  a  call  to  the 
ministry  that  leads  many  a  man  to  farm  just 
about  enough  to  ruin  his  preaching  and  preach 
about  enough  to  ruin  his  farming.  We  get  a  good 
lesson  from  Paul.  At  one  time  he  made  tents, 
not  to  make  money,  but  that  he  might  preach; 
and  it  falls  to  some  preachers  to  work  sometimes 
with  their  hands,  but  if  they  are  to  be  real  leaders, 
they  will  work  at  secular  employment  to  make  ex- 
penses in  their  holy  calling  of  preaching  the 
gospel. 

And  in  the  next  place,  I  call  your  attention  to 
the  fact  that  Paul  was  a  man  of  dauntless  cour- 
age. The  strength  of  predestination  was  in  his 
soul.  A  sense  of  being  knit  up  to  the  infinite  and 
the  divine  by  the  Divine  hand  gave  him  courage. 
He  turned  back  at  nothing.  You  will  see  a  beau- 
tiful contrast  between  a  man  wrho  once  for  all  has 
settled  things  and  knows  what  he  is  about  and  the 
man  who  is  not  quite  certain,  if  you  will  study 
Peter  and  Paul  at  Antioch.  Peter  got  into  a  bad 
atmosphere  and  vacillated.  He  carried  Barnabas, 
a  good  man,  with  him  and  things  were  on  the 
downhill  slide  at  Antioch  when  Paul  came  on  the 
scene.  He  was  as  tactful  as  he  was  courageous. 
To  cure  the  whole  situation  he  got  Peter  before 
the  whole  church  and  vertebrated  him  after  a 
courageous  and  manly  fashion  and  when  he  had 


22  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

straightened  Peter  up  before  all  of  them  he  had 
straightened  the  church  up.  It  was  one  of  the 
strong  points  in  Paul's  leadership  that  he  knew 
no  man  after  the  flesh — he  had  no  dignity  to  take 
care  of.  And  so  throughout  his  whole  career  he 
was  courageous  to  the  last  limit. 

There  is  a  scene  that  might  challenge  the  brush 
of  the  greatest  artist.  Think  of  Paul  at  his  first 
appearing  before  Xero.  Death  was  imminent. 
There  was  a  reign  of  terror  under  that  brutal 
ruler.  Paul  stood  for  his  Master  with  undaunted 
courage,  looking  straight  in  the  face  of  that 
brutal  Emperor,  surrounded  by  his  subservient 
courtiers.  You  will  recall  what  he  said,  "At  my 
first  appearing  no  man  stood  with  me."  In  all 
the  tides  of  time  there  is  not  a  more  splendid  ex- 
hibition of  lofty  courage  than  Paul  here  exhibited. 
But  you  will  remember  another  word,  "Neverthe- 
less I  was  not  alone;  the  Lord  stood  with  me;" 
and  so  it  should  put  courage  in  all  our  hearts,  as 
we  stand  before  the  people,  to  know  that  no  man 
who  resolutely  stands  to  his  duty  will  ever  be 
without  the  divine  presence  in  that  place.  No 
coward  has  any  right  to  be  a  preacher.  If  there 
is  a  preacher  before  me  this  morning,  who  is 
afraid  of  anyone  in  his  church,  afraid  to  speak 
his  soul  out  or  to  do  right,  then  that  man  ought 
to  pray  himself  out  of  that  timid  atmosphere,  or 
ought  to  resign  and  go  where  he  is  not  afraid. 
The  ministry  calls  for  the  finest  courage  in  the 
world.  There  are  men  looking  me  in  the  face 
this  minute  who  have  to  go  through  things  that 
test  them.  That  will  test  the  quality  of  their 
leadership  and  devotion  quite  as  much  as  the  im- 
mortal charge  of  Pickett  at  Gettysburg  tested 
soldiers,  and  besides,  my  brethren,  people  will  not 
follow  a  coward.  Nobody  has  any  respect  for  a 
coward  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it.  If  you  have 
no  courage  then  you  are  not  called  to  be  a  leader. 

But  I  would  like  to  put  in  this  other  word. 
Paul's  tenderness  and  thoughtfulness  and  care 
were  quite  as  marked  as  his  courage.    There  was 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  2  3 

nothing  of  the  bully  in  him.  He  was  a  plain, 
straight-going  man,  who  meant  to  do  his  duty  al- 
ways, having  regard  to  the  weaknesses  of  men, 
always  doing  his  duty,  not  hindering  but  helping. 
If  a  coward  is  out  of  place  in  the  pulpit,  then  a 
bully  is  quite  as  much  so,  if  not  more  so.  He  is 
the  abomination  of  desolation,  standing  where  he 
ought  not. 

But  I  must  hasten  along.  Paul  was  profoundly 
doctrinal.  We  hear  quite  a  good  deal  in  these 
latter  days  about  dry  doctrine,  as  if  all  doctrine 
were  dry.  It  is  not  the  doctrine  that  is  dry,  if 
it  is  Christ's  doctrine;  it  is  the  preaching  of  it 
that  is  dry  and  people  do  not  like  to  swallow  what 
is  dry.  Paul  was  profoundly  doctrinal,  but  there 
was  a  pathos  and  passion  and  love  that  glorified 
the  doctrine,  as  doctrine  glorified  the  other  quali- 
ties just  named.  We  are  in  great  danger  in 
some  quarters  just  now  of  contracting  softening 
of  the  brain  concerning  doctrine.  Doctrine  is  the 
strength  of  Christianity  and  no  man  wrill  ever  be 
a  great  leader  of  men  who  does  not  have  some- 
thing definite  to  put  before  them.  Many  a  man 
can  ride  on  a  wave  of  sentimentalism  and  pose 
as  a  leader,  but  the  real  leader,  wrhether  in  poli- 
tics, morals  or  religion  must  have  definite  and 
clear  cut  conceptions  of  important  truths,  which 
he  himself  can  state  to  the  people. 

I  have  already  spoken  a  word  about  Paul's  pas- 
sion. It  was  the  passion  of  Jesus  for  lost  men,  a 
passion  so  great  as  to  stir  his  heart  ceaselessly  and 
move  him,  even  as  it  moved  his  Master,  to  tears. 
It  seems  to  me  one  of  the  greatest  curses  of  our 
times  is  passionless  preaching.  Some  people  think 
they  are  intellectual  wrhen  they  are  merely  shal- 
low: No  man  is  profoundly  intellectual  in  re- 
ligion wiien  his  heart  is  not  profoundly  stirred 
with  the  sin  of  the  world,  the  woes  of  humanity 
and  the  infinite  love  of  Christ  for  lost  sinners. 
We  need  to  wratch  ourselves,  lest  we  fall  into  this 
shallow,  pedantic  preaching,  which  skims  along 
on  the  surface  and  leads  many  a  preacher  out  in- 


24  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

to  the  shallows  and  into  the  dry  rot  of  a  thin 
scholasticism. 

Notice  again  how  intensely  active  was  this 
great  leader.  Brethren,  one  of  the  sins  of  the 
ministry  today  is  sheer  laziness.  No  man  under 
the  sun  has  as  little  time  to. twaddle  and  stand  on 
the  street  corners  and  idle  away  his  time  or  take 
long  periods  off  at  watering  places  as  the  preacher. 
The  preacher  is  the  man  with  the  greatest  joh  and 
the  most  urgent.  He  can  not  lose  a  day  without 
falling  behind  with  his  work.  There  is  not  a  spot 
on  earth  where  people  live  that  a  preacher  may 
not  find  all  he  can  do.  The  humblest  country 
pastorate  has  in  it  and  about  it  enough  to  call 
out  the  energies  of  the  greatest  preacher  in  the 
world.  There  are  simple,  humble  people,  and 
ignorant,  to  be  sought  out  and  taught  and  led  to 
Christ  and  trained.  My  soul  has  no  delight  in  the 
easy  going  ministry  that  curses  so  many  churches. 
Paul's  great  passion  and  purpose,  like  that  of  his 
Master  was  to  fill  up  his  ministry  to  the  full  and 
to  finish  the  great  work  he  was  to  do.  And  that 
can  not  be  without  great  passion  and  purpose.  I 
go  back  to  say,  that  the. lazy  preacher,  who  twad- 
dles around  and  goes  to  dinners  and  smooths  a 
church  down  and  keeps  it  easy  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
ministry.  I  set  off  against  him  the  intense  activity 
of  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  There  are 
preachers  today  who  are  treating  their  churches 
like  an  old  maid  treats  her  pet  cat — smooths  its 
fur  the  right  way  all  the  time  and  is  quite  satis- 
fied if  the  cat  purrs,  forgetting  all  the  time  that 
while  the  cat  purrs  it  is  not  catching  mice. 
Our  times  in  a  preeminent  way,  call  for  active 
ministers,  men  who  work  at  their  calling  to  the 
limit  of  their  strength,  and  I  have  yet  to  see  any 
preacher  who  works  as  Paul  worked  who  is  not 
measurably  supported.  The  simple  truth  of  it  is, 
brethren,  a  good  many  preachers  are  paid  more 
than  their  work  justifies. 

Let  us  think  a  moment  about  another  high 
quality  in  Paul's  leadership.      It  was  out  and  out 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  25 

unselfish.  He  never  spared  himself;  he  never 
sought  his  own;  he  was  willing  to  spend  and 
!,e  spent.  He  followed  in  the  steps  of  his  divine 
Master  in  this  respect.  He  was  willing-  to  hurnhle 
himself  and  become  all  things  to  all  men  if  by 
any  means  he  might  save  some.  He  counted 
not  his  life  dear  unto  himself,  that  he  might  ful- 
fill his  ministry.  It  is  this  kind  of  ministry  today 
that  achieves  the  greatest  results.  Some  preach- 
ers have  a  foolish  notion  that  they  have  to  live. 
Paul  did  not  think  he  had  to  live,  and.  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  he  reached  the  time  he  didn't  live. 
What  all  of  us  have  to  do  is  to  do  the  work 
assigned  to  us_.  and  our  living  then  is  in  the  hands 
of  God.  This  is  true,  however,  that  the  most 
unselfish  men  in  the  ministry  today  are  generally 
the  best  cared  for.  Here  the  divine  word  has  its 
fulfillment.  "Whoever  is  willing  to  lose  his  life 
shall  find  it.  The  self-seeking  preacher  will  al- 
ways have  a  big  job  looking  for  a  place  and  for 
somebody  to  help  him  get  a  place. 

I  must  come  toward  the  last  word.  Paul  was 
an  optimist,  not  a  silly,  maudlin,  blind  optimist, 
but  a  wide-awake  far-seeing,  clear  visioned  opti- 
mist. He  believed  in  his  message;  he  believed  in 
its  power  to  revolutionize  men.  His  message  was 
Jesus  and  he  believed  Jesus  could  do  for  other 
men  what  He  had  done  for  him.  He  never 
doubted  and  he  was  never  down  in  the  mouth, 
because  he  was  never  down  in  the  heart.  When 
you  see  a  man  down  in  the  mouth,  it  is  because 
he  is  down  in  the  heart  first.  It  is  a  great  pity 
that  so  many  preachers,  not  here  in  North  Caro- 
lina, of  course,  but  so  many  preachers  in  the  past 
and  in  some  places  now,  have  lost  faith  in  their 
message.  They  are  trying  all  sorts  of  devices  to 
get  people  to  church.  They  get  fiddles,  and  more 
fiddles,  big  organs  and  then  bigger  organs,  paid 
singers,  all  the  etc.,  of  fleshly  pleasing.  Some  an- 
nounce extraordinary  subjects  and  amuse  people 
to  get  them  to  come  to  church.  The  next  step 
is    a   cage    of    monkeys    in    church    to    get    people 


2G  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

to  come  and  see.  Why  not?  Who  could  think 
of  Paul  doing  a  thing  like  this.  He  believed  ab- 
solutely in  the  message  he  was  divinely  appointed 
to  deliver  to  a  lost  world,  and  in  that  Paul  was 
profoundly  wise.  He  was  as  certain  as  the  stars 
that  shine.  Whoever  made  the  Bible  made  the 
human  heart  and  whoever  made  the  human  heart 
made  the  Bible.  They  fit,  they  go  together. 
Hallam,  the  great  historian  said,  "I  know  the 
Bible  is  true  because  it  fits  into  all  the  folds  of 
my  being."  Coleridge  said,  "I  know  it  is  true 
for  it  finds  me."  The  Scriptures  are  the  key  to 
the  human  heart.  Some  have  another  key,  and 
they  rattle  around  the  key  hole,  but  never  get  in. 
Paul  knew  his  message  and  believed  in  it.  A 
preacher  is  undone  if  he  doubts  his  message, 
doubts  either  the  truth  of  it  or  the  power  of  it. 

And  then  Paul's  optimism  had  another  great 
boost.  He  knew  that  Christ  was  with  the  man 
who  preached  the  message.  There  is  a  divine  ele- 
ment in  the  work  we  are  in.  If  it  were  human 
intellect  for  the  gospel  against  human  intellect  in 
rebellion,  we  would  all  get  down  in  the  mouth, 
because  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil  are 
against  us,  and  the  wise  of  this  world,  with  their 
fine  strut  and  superior  airs  would  put  us  all  in  the 
back  ground.  Bless  God,  the  preacher  with  his 
message  is  divinely  reinforced.  He  is  not  alone 
even  as  Paul  was  not  alone  when  he  preached 
before  Nero  and  made  converts  in  the  Emperor's 
household.  The  preacher  out  among  the  lofty 
pines  of  this  good  State,  or  far  out  on  the  western 
plains,  as  he  stands  to  deliver  God's  word  is  rein- 
forced by  a  power  that  is  superior  to  all  the 
powers  of  darkness.  The  gospel  will  never  fail 
until  we  fail  of  men  to  preach  it,  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
above. 

Now,  I  must  come  toward  the  close  with  just 
another  word.  Paul's  eye  was  fixed  steadily  on 
Jesus.  It  was  Jesus  all  the  time.  He  was  not 
beating  around  among  the  religions  that  he  came 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  2  7 

in  contact  with  to  find  congenial  elements,  to 
fuse  in  with  Christianity.  The  process  of  making 
up  with  heathenism  did  not  begin  with  Paul.  He 
had  one  message  and  one  cry  and  one  hope  and 
that  was  Jesus.  If  Jesus  were  preached,  men 
would  believe;  They  would  absorb  everything  good 
in  the  gospel,  and  eliminate  everything  bad  around 
them.  I  am  not  taking  any  great  pleasure  these 
latter  days  in  the  philosophies  that  are  creeping 
into  our  preaching.  They  are  mere  trash  com- 
pared with  Jesus  the  Master  of  men.  If  we  will 
go  on  in  the  simple  way  that  Paul  went,  gather- 
ing everything  around  Jesus,  then  we  will  have 
something  of  Paul's  splendid  optimism,  because 
Jesus  is  going  to  win.  He  who  made  the  world  and 
everything  in  it  is  going  to  master  the  world  and 
He  will  master  it  through  the  simple  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  That  was  the  way  Paul  looked  at 
it,  and  if  we  look  at  it  that  way,  we  will  have 
something  of  Paul's  serene  and  lofty  optimism, 
that  will  turn  all  darkness  into  light  and  every 
difficulty  into  an  opportunity.  We  will  be  able  to 
put  over  against  the  bad  of  the  world,  the  im- 
measurable good  of  Jesus  and  His  reign,  a  reign 
coming  on  more  and  more  and  sure  to  be  univer- 
sal. I  have  given  my  simple  message  this  morn- 
ing.     Let   us  follow   Paul   as  he  followed  Christ. 


THE  POINT  OF  CONTACT. 

By  EDWARD  LONG,  North  Wilkesboro,  N.  C. 

I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  restating  the  subject 
that  has  been  assigned  to  me  for  discussion,  but 
even  with  the  restatement  the  committee  has  al- 
lotted to  me  an  exceedingly  difficult  subject  to  dis- 
cuss intelligently,  yet,  a  most  vital  one.  The  re- 
statement, which  is  the  same  in  substance,  only 
more  specific,  is,  The  Proper  or  Most  Acute  Points 
of  Contact.  And  I  want  to  discuss  it  under  three 
heads,  namely;  (1)  The  Necessity  of  Finding 
Proper  Points  of  Contact,  (2)  The  Difficulty  of 
Finding  Proper  Points  of  Contact,  (3)  How  Shall 
We  Find  Proper  Points  of  Contact? 

The  minister  of  long  or  brief  experience  almost 
unconsciously  forms  the  habit  of  selecting  a  pas- 
sage of  scripture  as  a  basis  for  all  his  public 
discourses.  I  am  no  exception  to  the  rule.  While 
I  do  not  intend  to  bring  to  you,  in  the  technical 
sense,  a  sermon  this  morning,  yet  I  do  want  to 
quote  a  passage  of  scripture,  that  to  my  mind 
clearly  suggests  and,  in  a  large  measure,  explains 
the  subject  that  has  been  assigned  me  for  dis- 
cussion. And  I  trust  that  what  I  shall  say  shall 
be  sufficiently  pregnant  to  suggest  to  you  lines  of 
activity  that  you  may,  for  yourselves,  follow  to 
a  logical  conclusion,  which  lines  of  activity  may  be 
of  large  service  to  you  in  your  vital  ministry. 

The  passage  of  scripture  that  I  refer  you  to  is 
found  in  I.  Corinthians,  9:19-22:  "For  though  I 
was  free  from  all  men,  I  brought  myself  under 
bondage  to  all,  that  I  might  gain  the  more.  And 
to  the  Jews  I  became  as  a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain 
Jews;  to  them  that  are  under  the  law,  as  under 
the  law,  not  being  myself  under  the  law,  that  I 
might  gain  them  that  are  under  the  law;  to  them 
that  are  without  the  law,  as  without  the  law  to 
God,   but  under  the  law  to  Christ,   that  I  might 


2S 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  29 

gain  them  that  are  without  law.  To  the  weak  I 
became  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak:  I  am 
become  all  things  to  all  men.  that  I  may  by  all 
means  save  some." 

Why  does  Paul  when  he  is  with  the  Jews  be- 
come as  a  Jew,  obey  the  Mosaic  and  ceremonial 
law;  when  he  is  with  the  Gentiles  become  as  a 
Gentile,  disregard  the  Mosaic  and  ceremonial  law; 
to  the  weak  become  weak?  He  explains  in  the 
last  clause  of  the  2  2nd  verse — -"that  I  might  by 
all  means  save  some."  The  prince  of  preachers 
is  simply  trying  to  step  on  common  ground  with 
Jew,  Gentile  and  weak  that  he  may  be  able  to 
get  them  to  see  Christ  from  his  angle.  He  is  try- 
ing to  get  so  very  close  to  them  that  he  may  have 
sufficient  insight  into  their  lives  to  touch  the  most 
sensitive  and  most  responsive  spot  in  their  hearts. 
He  is  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice,  so  long  as  no 
Christian  principle  is  violated,  that  he  may  find 
the  most  acute  point  of  contact  with  them. 

(1)    The   Necessity   of  Finding   Proper  Points   of 
Contact. 

Why  was  it  so  necessary  that  Paul  find 
proper  points  of  contact?  That  his  message  might 
be   effective. 

The  black-smith  must  know  just  when,  where 
and  how  to  strike  the  blow  if  he  would  unite 
the  two  pieces  of  iron.  The  miner  must  know 
almost  instinctively  where  to  sink  the  shaft  if  he 
would  tap  the  vein  of  gold.  The  physician  must 
know  how  to  diagnose  the  case,  find  the  seat  of 
the  disease  if  he  would  heal  the  affected  parts. 
The  farmer  must  know  just  when,  where  and  how 
to  place  his  every  energy  if  he  would  reap  a  full 
harvest.  The  business  man  must  know  just  when 
to  touch  the  selling  and  when  to  touch  the  buying 
markets  if  he  would  garner  the  largest  margins. 
The  politician  must  know  just  when,  where  and 
how  to  do  and  say  the  proper  thing  if  he  would 
ride  on  the  crest  of  public  favor.  The  huntsman 
in  search  of  large  game  must  know  just  when  and 


3  0  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

where  to  place  the  shot  if  he  would  pierce  a  vital 
organ,  fell  the  game  and  save  his  own  life.  So 
the  minister  above  all  must  know  just  what,  when, 
where  and  how  to  say  and  do  the  right  thing  if 
he  would  make  his  words  and  works  effective.  He 
must  be  wise  enough  to  grasp  the  inspired 
thought,  speak  the  God  given  word  and  seize  the 
psychological  moment,  if  he  would  be  an  instru- 
ment in  God*s  hands  for  saving  souls,  transform- 
ing lives  and  revolutionizing  personalities.  In 
other  words  he  must  find  the  most  acute  points 
of  contact  if  he  would  make  his  words,  works,  and 
life  effective. 

A  most  noted  physicist  of  ancient  times  said, 
"Give  me  a  place  to  put  my  fulcrum  and  I  will 
move  the  earth."  That  is,  give  me  an  acute  point 
of  contact  between  this  planet  and  some  external 
body  and  I  will  toss  this  earth  out  of  its  orbit. 
So,  the  individual  if  he  knows  how  to  approach 
God  and  how  to  touch  the  world  at  the  most  acute 
points  may  be  a  fulcrum  in  God's  hand  by  the  use 
of  which  He  may  not  only  toss  the  individual  but 
the  whole  world  out  of  the  orbit  of  sin. 

Again,  why  should  the  minister  find  the  most 
acute  points  of  contact?  Because  an  immortal  soul 
is  in  jeopardy,  an  eternity  of  happiness  is  the 
hazard.  Because  his  work  is  of  such  vital  im- 
portance that  nothing  short  of  the  largest  results 
should  satisfy  him.  And  in  order  to  get  the  lar- 
gest, or  maximum  results,  he  must  know  just 
when,  where  and  how  to  invest  his  every  energy, 
or  know  how  to  find  proper  points  of  contact. 
The  slogan  for  all  aggressive  men  in  every  walk 
of  life  for  the  past  score  of  years  has  been,  "We 
must  have  maximum  results  from  minimum  ex- 
penditure of  energy."  The  tiller  of  the  soil,  who 
is  often  slow  to  grasp  modern  and  improved  ideas, 
is  today  as  never  before  beginning  to  realize  that 
he  must  apply  this  economic  principle,  and  as  a 
result,  the  ox  team,  the  crooked  stick  and  the 
pruning  hook  are  fast  being  displaced  by  the 
Percheron    horse,   the   power   propelled   machine, 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  31 

the  most  modern  farm  implements  and  the  most 
scientific  methods  of  cultivation.  Today  his 
rugged  strength  brings  him  a  hundred  fold  larger 
i  results  than  a  few  years  ago.  The  same  is  true  in 
all  spheres  of  activity  today.  The  miner,  the 
mechanic,  the  merchant,  the  man  of  large  business 
interests  is  striving  as  never  before  to  get  the 
largest  and  quickest  returns  from  the  least  ex- 
penditure of  energy.  Only  a  few  days  ago  I 
noticed  that  a  machinist  has  invented  an  engine 
that  will  produce  four  to  five  times  as  much  power 
from  a  given  amount  of  fuel  as  the  present  type 
of  steam  engine. 

If  men  in  all  other  walks  of  life  today  are  ap- 
plying this  law  of  efficiency  with  marked  success, 
the  minister,  above  all  should  begin  to  check  the 
waste,  should  strive  to  get  maximum  returns  from 
minimum  expenditure  of  energy,  and  more,  he 
should  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the 
maximum  expenditure  of  his  every  energy  with 
proportionately  increased  results.  Ours  is  too 
serious  a  calling  to  allow  a  grain  of  energy  to  go 
to  waste  or  to  be  spent  needlessly  so  long  as  it  is 
preventable. 

But  how  are  we  to  get  maximum  results,  how 
are  we  to  find  proper  points  of  contact? 

(2)    The   Difficulty   of   Finding   Proper  Points   of 
Contact. 

This  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  task.  Indeed,  I 
think  the  most  difficult  problem  that  the  minister 
has  to  solve  is,  "How  shall  I  approach  my  people 
on  the  street,  in  the  home,  in  the  sick  room,  in  the 
hour  of  trouble  and  business  reverses,  by  the 
open  grave?  How  shall  I  prepare  my  message 
that  it  may  always  be  effective?"  This  is  a  most 
delicate  task,  an  exceedingly  difficult  problem. 

Israel  is  in  bondage  to  Egypt.  God  has  "seen 
the  affliction"  and  "heard  their  cry."  He  turns 
to  Moses  and  says,  "Come  now  therefore,  and  I 
will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh,  that  thou  mayest 
bring  forth  my  people  the  children  of  Israel  out 


32  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

of  Egypt."  Moses  has  left  Pharaoh's  court  for 
this  express  purpose.  Quickly  he  reviews  the 
power  of  Pharaoh  and  the  weak  and  disorganized 
conditions  of  the  Israelites  and  with  despair 
written  on  his  face  he  turns  to  God  and  says, 
"Who  am  I,  that  I  should  go  unto  Pharaoh,  and 
that  I  should  bring  forth  the  children  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt?"  He  saw  the  great  need  bat  he 
quailed  before  the  difficult  task. 

Yonder  to  the  south,  in  echoing  distance  each  of 
the  other,  the  two  great  oceans  of  our  earth,  for 
ceasless  ages,  have  madly  hurled  their  terrific 
breakers  from  one  side  and  the  other  against  the 
rockribbed  and  impregnable  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
The  time  has  come  that  the  commercial  interests, 
social  development  and  religious  awakening  of  the 
world  demand  that  an  international  water  way 
be  opened  across  this  narrow  but  formidable  bar- 
rier to  progress.  The  eyes  of  all  the  great,  nations 
have  been  turned  toward  this  world  need  for  a 
century.  They  knew  full  well  that  to  throw  a 
canal  across  this  narrow  isthmus  would  revolu- 
tionize the  commerce  of  the  world  and  be  the 
longest  stride  toward  international  peace  that  the 
world  has  taken  since  the  coming  of  the  Prince 
of  peace.  France  saw  the  great  need  but  faltered 
before  the  difficulties.  The  United  States  long 
years  ago  saw  the  crying  need  but  for  decades 
stood  in  awe  of  a  need  that  was  hedged  about 
with  so  many  difficulties. 

Here  is  a  world  in  sin.  lost!  God's  great, 
warm,  throbbing  heart  yearns  for  man.  He  wants 
to  save  this  world,  but,  ah,  the  difficulty!  I  say 
it  reverently,  but  I  believe  God  Himself  stood  in 
awe  of  the  supremacy  of  the  human  will,  of  that 
indomitable  principle  in  man! 

Yonder  is  Calvary,  here  is  Christ  in  Gethsemane, 
stretching  out  before  Him,  is  a  world  in  darkness 
and  overwhelmed  with  sin.  The  need,  oh,  the 
need  of  salvation,  but  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  working  out  that  salvation!  As  the  dense 
darkness,  born  of  the  difficulties,  hovers  about  His 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  33 

squI,  in  great  agony  He  falls  upon  His  face  and 
says,  "O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup 
pass  away  from  me!"  I  fancy  that  Christ  won- 
ders if  even  Calvary  itself  will  roll  back  the  flood 
of  sin  and  save  the  world! 

There  before  you  is  an  individual  out  of  Christ, 
a  large  church  lost  in  slumbers,  a  community  with 
low  ideals,  out  yonder  is  a  China  in  darkness,  an 
India  in  superstition,  an  Africa  lost  in  the  jungle. 
The  great  need  stares  every  earnest  soul  in  the 
face,  but  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  meeting 
these  needs  well  nigh  overwhelm  the  most  opti- 
mistic. 

(3)  How  Shall  We  Find  Proper  Points  of  Contact? 

Now  we  recognize  the  necessity  of  finding  the 
most  acute  points  of  contact,  the  difficulty  of  same. 
It  is  then  left  to  us  to  meet  this  necessity,  to 
solve  this  difficulty.  For  if  this  necessity  is  ever 
met,  this  difficulty  ever  solved,  it  will  be  by  those 
who  under  the  guidance  of  a  Divine  power  find 
the  most  acute  points  of  contact. 

The  tiller  of  the  soil,  the  miner,  the  mechanic 
in  order  to  get  maximum  results  from  minimum 
expidentures  of  energy  must  know,  at  the  least 
to  a  moral  certainty,  how  to  expend  his  energies, 
he  must  not  act  on  a  supposition.  The  farmer 
must  know  where  to  place  his  spade,  the  mechanic 
where  to  place  his  fulcrum,  the  miner  where  to 
place  his  powerful  explosive.  In  other  words  he 
must  find  the  most  acute  points  of  contact  if  he 
would  get  the  largest  results.  So  it  is  with  the 
minister.  If  he  would  get  maximum  results,  not 
from  the  minimum  expenditures  of  his  energies 
but  from  the  maximum  expenditures  of  his  ener- 
gies he  must  know  how  to  approach  God,  how  to 
touch  man  at  the  most  acute  angles  of  his  life. 
Here  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  Here  is 
the  test  of  the  minister's  efficiency.  Here  is  the 
secret  of  his  success  or  failure.  With  this  know- 
ledge he  succeeds,  without  it  he  fails.  All  along 
through    the    Christian    centuries    some    men— ^-a 


34  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

Chrysostom,  a  Luther,  a  Spurgeon,  a  Moody — have 
seemed  to  possess  this  knowledge  to  the  full, 
while  others  have  wrought  without  it.  So  it  is  to- 
day. One  minister  goes  on  a  field.  He  toils  at 
his  desk  faithfully  through  the  morning  hours, 
he  runs  errands  of  kindness  in  the  afternoon, *he 
is  careful  of  his  devotional  life.  Yet  from  every 
outward  appearance  he  accomplishes  very  little. 
Another  minister  goes  on  another  field  where, 
to  all  outward  appearances,  the  conditions  are 
similar.  The  latter  is  no  more  faithful,  no  more 
pious,  no  more  zealous,  no  more  brilliant,  yet  his 
ministry  is  apparently  much  more  effective.  How 
do  you  account  for  the  difference? 

You  have  heard  two  ministers  of  equal  piety, 
of  equal  native  ability,  yet  of  unequal  educational 
advantages.  The  one  selected  his  text,  gave  the 
setting,  then  literally  tore  it  apart,  piece  by  piece, 
as  the  expert  machinist  would  tear  in  pieces  the 
most  intricate  machine,  held  up  each  piece  before 
you,  explained  to  you  its  relationship  to  every 
other  part  of  the  text  and  to  the  whole.  Then 
he  carefully  fitted  it  back  together.  The  other 
selected  his  text,  he  could  scarcely  read  correctly, 
interpreted  badly.  The  one  was  logical  the  other 
illogical.  The  one  was  delivered  with  dignity, 
grace  and  ease  the  other  was  poorly  delivered. 
Yet  the  one  fell  on  deaf  ears  and  listless  hearts 
while  the  other  touched  the  heart,  stirred  the 
soul  and  quickened  the  life.  What  was  the  dif- 
ference? One  knew  not  how  to  approach  God,  to 
touch  man  at  the  most  acute  points,  the  other 
did. 

Here  is  a  minister  with  wide  culture,  extensive 
knowledge,  large  grasp  of  history,  science,  litera- 
ture, theology.  He  is  pious,  earnest.  Yet  he 
cannot  influence  men.  Why?  Because  he  does 
not  know  how  to  find  the  most  acute  points  of 
contact  with  their  lives. 

Now,  how  is  the  minister  to  meet  this  necessity, 
to  solve  this  difficulty,  to  find  proper  points  of 
contact? 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  35 

It  is  self-evident  that  he  must  have  certain 
fundamental  qualifications  for  this  very  delicate 
work.  He  must  first  of  all  be  a  man.  He  must 
have  that  innate  quality  of  soul  that  will  make 
him  ring  true  every  time  he  is  tested.  He  must 
be  an  honest  man.  for  rightly  says  Pope.  "An 
honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God."'  He  must 
be  a  thorough-going  Christian  man.  He  must 
know  God.  He  must  have  had  an  experience 
with  Christ.  The  living  presence  of  God  must  be 
the  dominating  personality  in  his  being.  He  must 
be  conversant  with  the  great  cardinal  teachings  of 
God*s  inspired  word.  He  must  know  human  nature 
— the  heights  to  which  man  may  rise,  the  depths 
to  which  he  may  sink.  He  should  have  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  great  social,  economic,  and 
political  movements  of  his  day.  Other  things  be- 
ing equal,  the  more  thoroughly  his  mind  is 
trained  the  better  qualified  he  is  for  his  difficult 
work.  Gone  forever  the  day  when  the  Baptists 
of  North  Carolina  and  the  Southland  shall  be 
satisfied  with  anything  short  of  the  most 
thoroughly  equipped  ministry.  The  Dean  of  the 
seminary  where  I  took  my  training  in  urging  the 
young  men  to  thoroughly  equip  themselves  before 
going  out  into  their  life  work,  frequently  used 
this  graphic  statement:  "Young  men,"  said  he. 
"stay  by  the  grindstone  a  long  time  in  the  morn- 
ing for  God  Almighty  Himself  can  cut  more  wood 
with  a  sharp  axe  than  with  a  dull  one."  Again, 
he  must  be  an  observant  man.  He  must  be  the 
equal  or  superior  of  Sam  Walter  Foss's  ideal  man. 
Says  he, 

"Give  me  men  to  match  my  mountains, 
Give  me  men  to  match  my  plains, 
Men  with,  empires  in  their  purpose, 
Men  with  eras  in  their  brains." 

He  must  have  intelligent  convictions  and  have 
the  courage  of  his  convictions.  He  must  have  a 
consuming  passion  for  human  souls. 


3  6  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

"O,  for  a  passion  for  souls; 

O,  for  a  pity  that  yearns; 
O,  for  a  love  stronger  than  death; 

O,  for  a  fire  that  burns; 
O,  for  a  prayer  that  prevails; 

Prayer  for  the  millions  lost; 
Prayer  in  the  Conqueror's  name; 

O,  for  a  pentecost." 

And  above  all  he  must  tarry  at  Jerusalem  until  he 
be  endued  with  power  from  on  high.  Having 
these  and  other  cardinal  qualifications  that  1 
might  mention,  will  every  minister  succeed,  will 
he  be  able  to  find  proper  points  of  contact  with 
men?  No.  How  then  can  he  find  the  most  acute 
points  of  contact?  No  hard  and  fast  set  of  rules 
can  be  given.  Why?  Because  every  true  minister 
has  his  own  unique  personality.  He  is  not  like 
any  one  else,  no  one  else  is  like  him.  He  has  his 
own  cast  of  mind,  his  own  experience,  his  own  way 
of  putting  things,  his  own  way  of  doing  things; 
every  time  he  turns,  every  individual  he  meets, 
every  congregation  he  faces,  every  community  he 
enters,  every  morning  he  awakes,  he  is  brought 
face  to  face  with  new  born  conditions.  Under 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  he  must  be  able 
to  relate  his  life  and  message  to  these  ever  chang- 
ing conditions  or  he  fails.  Undoubtedly  Christ 
had  in  mind  this  Divine  guidance  when  He  said 
to  His  disciples,  "Behold,  I  send  you  forth  as 
sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves:  be  ye  therefore  wise 
as  serpents,  and  harmless  as  doves.  But  beware  of 
men:  for  they  will  deliver  you  up  to  the  councils, 
and  they  will  scourge  you  in  their  synagogues; 
and  ye  shall  be  brought  before  governors  and 
kings  for  my  sake,  for  a  testimony  against  them 
and  the  Gentiles.  But  when  they  deliver  you  up, 
take  no  thought  how  or  what  ye  shall  %peak:  for 
it  shall  be  given  you  that  same  hour  what  ye 
shall  speak.  For  it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the 
Spirit  of  your  Father  which  speaketh  in  you." 
The  peerless  Apostle  Paul  was  an  adept  at  adapt- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  37 

ing  himself  to  swiftly  changing  conditions.  When 
the  mob  was  about  to  tear  his  body  limb  from 
limb  he  looked  into  their  angry  faces  and  "per- 
ceived that  the  one  part  were  Sadducees,  and  the 
other  Pharisees,  he  cried  out  in  the  council,  'Men 
and  brethren,  I  am  a  Pharisee,  the  son  of  a  Phari- 
see: of  the  hope  and  resurrection  of  the  dead  I  am 
called  in  question.'  And  when  he  had  so  said, 
there  arose  a  dissension  between  the  Pharisees 
and  the  Sadducees:  and  the  multitude  was  di- 
vided," and  Paul  was  delivered  out  of  their  hands. 
When  he  stood  before  Felix  and  Drusilla  he  real- 
ized that  it  was  folly  for  him  to  recount  the 
actual  details  of  his  defense  so  with  all  the  earn- 
estness of  his  soul  "he  reasoned  of  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,"  and  made 
Felix  tremble  in  his  presence.  When  his  feet 
mere  made  fast  in  a  dungeon  at  Philippi  he 
prayed  and  sang  songs  of  praise  and  through  this 
wonderful  deliverance  from  prison  the  whole  city 
was  turned  upside  down  and  Paul  was  the  most 
conspicuous  character  and  his  Christ  the  most 
talked  of  person.  When  he  stood  "in  the  midst 
of  Mars'  Hill"  he  startled  the  Greek  scholars  who 
were  all  the  while  searching  for  something  new, 
by  proclaiming  unto  them  "The  Unknown  God." 
Now  he  is  telling  the  thrilling  story  of  his  con- 
version, now  laboring  with  his  hands,  now  work- 
ing a  miracle,  now  proclaiming  the  salient  fa^ts  of 
Christ's  life  and  ministry.  Yes,  everywhere  and 
at  all  times  he  became  "  all  things  to  all  men," 
that  he  "might  by  all  means  save  some."  Who 
has  striven  harder  to  find  acute  points  of  contact 
with  men  than  Paul?  Who  has  been  more  suc- 
cessful? 

So  we  should  strive  to  do  this  difficult  thing. 
If  facing  a  company  of  men  whose  lives  have  been 
begrimed  with  sin,  who  have  sunk  to  the  very 
depths;  the  simple  story  of  our  conversion  may 
be  the  most  telling  sermon;  if  facing  an  intellect- 
ual audience,  an  appeal  to  reason  may  be  most 
effective;    if  facing  a  company  of  self  righteous 


38  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

whose  hearts  have  become  calloused,  the  terrors  of 
the  judgment  may  move  them;  if  facing  a  com- 
pany of  the  giddy  and  thoughtless,  an  appeal  to 
the  emotions  may  be  wisest.  It  is  left  to  us  under 
the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  become  "all 
things  to  all  men,"  that  we  may  by  "all  means 
save  some." 

In  conclusion  I  can  but  refer  you  to  Him  who  is 
at  once  the  ideal  and  despair  of  all  other,  preach- 
ers, Jesus  the  Great  Teacher.  Says  one  of  Him,  "It 
is  quite  certain  that  no  other  hero  ever  went  to 
such  instant  popularity  as  did  Jesus.  Within  a 
few  weeks  after  he  began  His  public  ministry 
His  name  and  fame  had  travelled  into  the  utter- 
most corner  of  the  land.  In  their  eagerness  to 
hear  Him,  men  forgot  their  private  interests  and 
their  public  duties.  The  farmer  deserted  his 
plow,  the  shepherds  forsook  their  flocks  and  all 
men  rushed  together  to  see  and  hear  Jesus. "Where 
were  the  hidings  of  His  power  with  men?  It  was 
not  His  education.  That  He  acquired  in  the  uni- 
versity of  observation.  It  was  not  His  oratory. 
Others  were  as  eloquent,  as  men  style  eloquence. 
It  was  not  His  leadership.  Others  have  been  able 
to  transform  a  multitude  into  a  regiment.  Where, 
then,  were  the  secret  hidings  of  His  power?  Bar- 
ring Divinity,  it  was  the  note  of  reality  in  His 
life.  It  was  His  absolute  originality.  He  re- 
fused to  be  bound  by  tradition  or  fettered  by  cus- 
tom. Instead  of  turning  always  to  the  laws  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets  for  his  texts;  the  blade  of 
grass,  the  wild  lily,  the  latest  new  blown  rose,  the 
falling  sparrow,  the  drifting  cloud,  the  wedding 
feast,  the  journeying  king,  the  passing  soldier, 
the  sight  of  the  sower,  served  as  the  bases  of  His 
great  discourses.  It  was  the  greatness  of  the 
themes  He  discussed.  God,  man,  the  world,  vir- 
tue, the  nature  of  righteousness,  the  com.ing  of  the 
kingdom,  the  reign  of  peace,  sin,  forgiveness  of 
sin,  kindness  to  enemies,  duty  to  the  child,  to 
women,  to  parents,  to  the  state,  the  hope  of  im- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  39 

mortality.  It  was  His  power  to  adapt  Himself  to 
any  new  born  condition,  to  meet  every  emergency 
with  apt  parables  and  illustrations  which  fell 
from  his  lips  as  swiftly  as  suns  and  stars  fall 
when  the  right  hand  of  God's  omnipotence  smite* 
the  anvil  of  matter  and  purpose.  Know  God, 
study  Christ's  methods,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  find  the  heart  of  man. 


THE  PASTOR  AND  THE  INTER- 
MEDIATE BOY. 

By  B.  W.  SPILMAN,  D.D.,  Kinston,  N.  C. 

The  Intermediate  Department  of  the  Sunday- 
school  takes  the  ages  thirteen  to  sixteen,  inclusive. 
A  boy  at  this  age  is  just  emerging  from  child- 
hood. He  is  not  yet  a  man,  and  will  not  be  for 
some  years.  In  introducing  him  you  do  not  know 
whether  to  say  "Mr.  Smith"  or  simply  "John." 
His  voice  is  freaky.  He  probably  loves  his  sister 
very  much,  but  he  would  not,  for  the  world,  be 
like  her.  He  is  a  queer  sort  of  animal.  There 
is  no  other  like  him. 

Here  in  North  Carolina  almost  every  boy  in  the 
State  has,  at  some  time  in  his  life,  been  brought 
under  the  direct  influence  of  some  sort  of  relig- 
ious training.  Nearly  all  of  them  have  been  in 
the  Sunday-school  at  some  time.  It  would  be 
well  on  the  safe  side  to  say  that  had  they  all 
been  kept  in  the  Sunday-school  for  a  period  of 
fifteen  years,  or  until  they  had  reached  the  age 
of  twenty,  that  ninety-five  out  of  every  hundred 
of  them  would  have  been  saved.  As  it  is,  the 
best  available  statistics  on  the  subject  reveal  the 
alarming  fact  that  of  every  hundred  boys  who 
enter  the  Sunday-school  seventy-five  per  cent  are 
allowed  to  drift  away  and  go  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  ordinary  available  means  of  salvation,  so 
far  as  we  can  bring  the  means  to  bear  upon  them. 

The  men  of  tomorrow  are  the  boys  of  today; 
every  man  today  was  at  one  time  a  boy  between 
the  ages  of  thirteen  and  sixteen.  In  the  name  of 
this  future  generation  I  make  the  plea  that  we 
hold  the  Intermediate  boy  and  win  him  for  Christ 
and  to  a  life  of  usefulness. 

Before  being  able  to  do  anything  with  any 
degree  of  intelligence,  we  must  know  something 
of  the  boy  in  this  period.     The  means  of  knowing 

40 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  41 

him  are  easily  available.  Books  have  been  writ- 
ten about  him.  You  pastors  were  all  once  boys. 
The  raw  material  is  at  hand  for  a  first  hand 
study.  The  wide-awake  boys  of  your  community 
afford  one  of  the  finest  possible  sources  of  ma- 
terial for  intelligent  laboratory  work.  The  speci- 
mens are  very  much  alive.  They  are  liable  to 
have  something  happening  at  every  stage  of  the 
game   while   you   are   making  the   study. 

What  should  be  known  about  the  boy  in  this 
period?  Certainly  the  general  characteristics 
which  fit  all  boys  of  this  general  age  should  be 
understood  if  we  would  work  with  them  intel- 
ligently. Let  some  of  these  characteristics  be 
pointed  out: 

1.  It  is  the  age  of  most  rapid  growth.  When 
we  know  what  this  involves  it  will  change  our 
whole  attitude  toward  the  boys  sometimes. 

2.  It  is  the  period  when  disease  comes  most 
frequently. 

3.  It  is  the  age  when  the  boy  is  awkward  and 
shy.  He  is  growing  rapidly  and  the  nerves  are 
near  the  surface.  He  feels  that  everybody  is 
looking  at  him,  and  perhaps  offering  adverse 
criticisms. 

4.  Hence  this  is  the  age  of  self-consciousness. 
And  all  who  have  passed  through  this  age  know 
how  very  unpleasant  it  is. 

5.  It  is  the  lonely  period  of  the  boy's  life. 
He  dreams  dreams  and  sees  visions. 

6.  It  is  the  wandering  age.  He  dreams  of 
lands  far  away.  He  wants  to  be  out  and  going 
somewhere.  And  some  of  them  obey  the  impulse 
and   go. 

7.  It  is  the  habit-forming  age;  perhaps  not 
so  much  the  age  of  forming  habits  as  the  age  of 
fixing  them.  Ideals  come  thick  and  fast.  Some 
are    good    and    some    are    bad. 

8.  It  is  the  age  of  crises.  Habits  fixed  will 
stay.  The  mind  is  reaching  out  after  other  things. 
Foundations  are   examined      and      often   the   boy 


42  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

thinks  a  cause  is  no  stronger  than  the  arguments 
made  for  it. 

9.  It  is  the  age  when  the  criminal  develops. 
A  boy  who  passes  this  age  without  becoming  a 
lawbreaker  is  fairly  safe  on  the  road  to  good 
citizenship. 

10.  It  is  the  age  of  moral  lapse.  Perhaps  nine 
tenths  of  all  the  boys  who  grow  to  be  men,  of 
unclean  lives  had  the  first  lapse  from  purity  in 
the  age  covered  by  the  intermediate  period. 

11.  It  is  the  age  of  conversion.  Generally 
the  battle  is  fought  out  and  either  won  or  lost 
in  this  age.  If  the  boy  passes  sixteen  years  of 
age  without  surrender  to  God  the  road  leads 
farther  and  farther  away  with  every  passing  day. 

12.  It  is  the  age  of  the  highly  developed  sense 
of  altruism.  The  gang  spirit  is  highly  developed. 
He  stands  for  team  work. 

All  of  these  will  readily  indicate  pointers  as 
to  the  wise  handling  of  the  boy.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  no  two  boys  are  alike.  And 
the  traits  which  they  have  in  common  do  not 
develop  with  the  same  degree  of  rapidity.  Each 
boy  must  have  individual  treatment.  And  the 
treatment  which  would  do  today  will  not  fit  to- 
morrow. A  boy  is  not  only  not  like  anything 
else  in  the  world,  but  he  is  not  like  other  boys, 
and  is  not  like  himself  any  two  days  in  succes- 
sion. Hence  the  teacher  must  know  the  individual 
boy.  Know  him  by  name;  know  the  things  which 
touch  his  daily  life;  know  the  things  of  which  he 
is  fond  and  The  things  which  he  dislikes.  Know 
the  life  which  he  lives. 

Just  a  few  general  hints  as  to  how  to  deal 
with  the  boy.  He  needs  a  companion  even  more 
than  a  teacher.  A  man  who  knows  a  boy  and 
who  can  understand  him  is  worth  more  as  a 
teacher  for  him  than  an  expert  teacher.  Happy 
the  pastor  who  can  make  boys  love  him.  It  is 
the  first  step  toward  winning  him  for  the  Christ. 

Be  patient  with  the  shy,  awkward  boy.  He 
will    outgrow    that    after    a    while.      Shield    him 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  4  3 

from  publicity.  See  that  special  rooms  are  pro- 
vided for  them.  If  not,  they  are  going  to  leave 
the  Sunday-school  with  almost  the  certainty  of 
the  passing  of  years  from  the  Junior  to  the  In- 
termediate Department. 

Be  his  companion;  go  hunting  and  fishing  with 
him.  Have  a  party  of  them  go  camping  with  the 
pastor.  Throw  around  him  the  right  kind  of 
influences.  Be  what  you  would  want  him  to  be. 
See  that  the  hero  for  him  is  the  hero  who  stands 
for  righteousness. 

Go  after  him  for  a  definite  decision  for  Christ. 
But  do  it  privately  and  under  right  conditions. 
Organize  them  around  some  idea  which  is  good. 

Make  a  definite  place  for  him  in  the  Sunday- 
school  system.  With  our  highly  developed  Sun- 
day-school organization  some  people  think  that 
the  last  word  has  been  spoken  in  that  direction. 
I  am  not  at  all  sure  of  it.  Instead  of  having  a 
junior  department  with  boys  and  girls  in  that 
department,  and  an  intermediate  department 
with  boys  and  girls  in  the  department,  I  think 
that  we  had  better  come  to  the  plan  of  having 
a  boys'  department  with  Junior  and  Intermediate 
boys  in  it,  and  a  girls'  department  with  Junior 
and  Intermediate  girls  in  it.  Would  that  some 
pastors  here  might  try  the  experiment  and  do  it 
so  that  the  thing  might  have  a  fair  trial. 

It  is  the  business  of  the  pastors  to  win  the  boy 
both  to   Christ   and   to   a  life   of   usefulness. 

The  men  of  tomorrow  are  the  boys  of  today. 
They  are  worthy  of  our  best  efforts. 


EXPOSITORY  PREACHING. 

By  I.  M.  MERCER,  D.  D.,  Rocky  Mount,  N.  C. 

Sermons  may  be  classified  from  two  main 
points  of  view:  On  the  one  hand,  as  to  their 
general  contents  or  subject-matter;  on  the  other, 
as  to  their  method  of  treatment,  or  sources  of 
division  and  material.  According  to  the  first  clas- 
sification, as  to  their  subject-matter,  sermons  are 
called  doctrinal,  or  moral,  or  historical,  or  ex- 
perimental, and  the  like.  According  to  the  second 
classification,  namely,  the  method  of  treatment, 
sermons  are  called  expository,  or  textual,  or  sub- 
ject sermons.  Of  course  these  lines  of  division 
are  not  always  clearly  marked,  sometimes  they 
shade  greatly  into  one  another.  But  these  are 
the  general  divisions. 

In  subject  sermons  the  text  is  presumed  to 
furnish  the  topic,  the  subject,  only;  while  the 
headings,  the  divisions,  as  well  as  the  material 
of  the  sermon,  are  our  own.  In  textual  sermons 
not  only  the  topic,  but  also  the  headings,  the 
divisions,  are  taken  from  the  text;  while  the 
treatment  of  the  same  is  still  our  own.  In  ex- 
pository sermons  the  text  furnishes  not  only  topic 
and  divisions,  but  also  the  material,  the  thought, 
the  sum  and  substance  of  the  sermon. 

The  word  expository  means  exposing  or  bring- 
ing out.  Expository  preaching,  then,  is  that 
form  of  preaching  that  exposes,  sets  forth,  or 
brings  out  what  is  in  the  portion  of  Scripture 
chosen  as  a  text,  namely,  its  meaning  or  thoughts. 
Expository  preaching  asks  and  answers  this  ques- 
tion: What  is  the  exact  meaning  of  this  passage 
of  Scripture;  what  its  leading  and  minor 
thoughts;  what  their  true  relation  to  one  an- 
other; and  what  the  lessons  and  teachings  for  us? 
It  has  nothing  to  do  with  other  thoughts  than 
those  involved  in  the  text;    nor  even  with  other 

44 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  4  5 

passages  of  Scripture,  except  so  far  as  quotations 
or  as  briefly  shown  to  harmonize  therewith.  The 
basis  of  expository  preaching  is  exegesis.  But 
mere  exegesis  is  not  expository  preaching.  Exe- 
gesis, like  the  blade  of  the  dissecting  physician, 
takes  apart,  but  does  no  more  than  this.  Ex- 
pository preaching  also  dismembers,  but  it  dis- 
members in  order  to  put  together  again;  the  be- 
holder during  the  process  having  learned  the 
members  and  their  functions,  and  in  the  end 
seeing  the  harmony  and  beauty  of  the  whole. 
Such  preaching  brings  out  before  the  hearer  as 
near  as  possible  the  exact  thoughts  of  the  pas- 
sage, no  more,  no  less,  each  with  its  own  value 
or  emphasis,  and  all  in  their  unity  and  structural 
beauty,  and  gathers  as  it  goes  the  fruits  and  les- 
sons for  the  hearer. 

The  full  counterpart  of  expository  preaching, 
as  already  intimated,  is  subject  preaching.  In  ex- 
pository preaching  the  sermon  comes  from  and 
out  of  the  text,  in  subject  preaching  the  text  is 
found  for  the  sermon,  or  at  most  furnishes  the 
theme  only;  in  the  former  the  thought  is,  "What 
does  God  say  here?"  in  the  latter,  "Here  is  some- 
thing I  want  to  say  for  which  I  want  Divine  sanc- 
tion in  the  form  of  a  text;"  in  the  former  the 
Scripture  is  both  text  and  sermon,  in  the  latter 
it  is  pre-text  and  nothing  more.  In  these  defini- 
tions I  would  not  disparage  the  forms  of  subject 
preaching,  especially  those  sermons  in  which  the 
Scriptures  bearing  on  great  themes  and  doctrines 
are  collated  and  discussed.  Such  preaching  is 
due  both  to  the  word  and  the  churches,  and  every 
pastor  must  more  or  less  engage  therein.  And 
yet  the  broad  distinction  between  the  expository 
sermon  and  the  subject  sermon  still  remains,  that 
in  the  former  the  preacher  comes  to  God's  words 
to  get  both  text  and  sermon,  while  in  the  latter 
he  comes  only  for  the  text,  proposing  himself  to 
furnish  or  evolve  the  sermon. 

That  there  are  difficulties,  and  sometimes 
failures,  connected  with  expository  preaching,  no 


46  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

man  who  has  ever  honestly  and  earnestly  tried 
it  will  deny.  It  is  a  form  of  preaching  that  de- 
mands on  the  part  of  the  preacher  very  accurate, 
patient  and  long-continued  study  of  the  text  and 
the  word  of  God;  and  it  is  often  the  case  with 
the  busy  pastor  of  a  large  field  that  the  requisite 
time  for  such  study  cannot  be  gained,  even  though 
the  spirit,  yea,  the  yearning  desire,  for  such 
study  be  present.  It  is  also  a  method  of  sermon- 
izing in  which  one  cannot  with  rapid  stride  attain 
unto  maturity  and  mastery.  Indeed,  ability  in 
expository  preaching,  though  possible  to  all,  is 
a  matter  of  comparatively  slow  growth,  even  with 
the  ablest.  Such  ability,  like  the  growth  of  the 
oak,  may  be  sure,  but  it  is  also  slow,  and  has  to 
weather  many  a  storm.  But,  like  the  oak  again, 
it  will  furnish  strong  timber  and  pillars  for  the 
churches  of  the  living  God. 

Another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  expository 
preaching  lies  in  the  people,  in  the  churches 
themselves.  The  people  in  general  do  not  know 
enough  of  the  word  of  God  to  follow  with  appre- 
ciation and  profit  the  exposition  of  a  passage  of 
ordinary  length.  This  is  true,  perhaps,  of  the 
majority  of  our  church  members.  How  humiliat- 
ing it  is  to  the  preacher  when,  after  long,  patient 
and  thorough  preparation,  he  brings  before  his 
people  an  exposition  of  some  important  passage, 
and  finds  in  a  few  moments  that  their  grasp  of 
the  subject,  instead  of  strengthening,  is  weaken- 
ing, and  soon  that  they  are  not  following  him 
at  all.  Long  ere  the  sermon  is  done  the  preacher, 
with  hungry  eyes,  spots  here  and  there  the  few 
diligent  readers  of  the  word,  and,  leaning  hard 
upon  these  as  his  Aarons  and  Hurs,  he  hastens 
to  the  end  of  the  conflict,  almost  vowing  in  his 
heart  that  he  will  never  attempt  another  exposi- 
tory sermon. 

Of  course  some  one  could  say  such  a  result  is 
the  fault  of  the  preacher,  that  he  ought  to  have 
made  the  sermon  sprightlier  and  better.  But  this 
is  not  always  the  case.     It  is  true  that  the  exposi- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  4  7 

tory  sermon  is  the  hardest  of  all  sermons  to  make 
and  the  hardest  of  all  to  deliver;  that  it  re- 
quires close-knit  unity  and  structure,  a  thorough 
mastery  of  the  details,  and  an  upholding  and 
linking  of  all  the  parts;  that  it  must  be  a  living 
and  burning  organism,  moving  with  strength  and 
stride;  and  yet,  it  is  also  true  that  many  an  ex- 
cellent expository  sermon  has  been  a  comparative 
failure,  and  that  because  the  people,  even  profess- 
ing Christians,  did  not  know  enough  of  God's 
word  to  grasp  the  Divine  thoughts  and  to  follow 
and  uphold  the  expositor. 

In  the  face  of  these  admitted  difficulties  what 
shall  we  do?  Shall  we  with  a  groan  retire  from 
the  contest  and  give  up  expository  preaching? 
Shall  we  cease  to  bring  to  our  people,  now  and 
then,  careful  exposition  of  God's  word,  even 
though  such  sermons  may  be  heavy  and  dull  to 
many  of  them?  That  were  childish  and  unmanly; 
that  were  being  untrue  to  the  churches,  to  the 
word,  to  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation. 

But,  brethren,  much  can  be  said  in  favor  of 
expository  preaching — enough,  and  more  than 
enough,  I  verily  believe,  to  outweigh  all  that  has 
been  said  or  can  be  said  against  it. 

A  few  moments'  thought  will  readily  reveal  to 
us  what  advantages  expository  preaching  has  for 
the  preacher  himself.  We  can  at  once  see  that 
such  preaching  will  lead  him  to  a  closer  and  more 
patient  study  of  God's  word,  and  therefore  to  a 
more  thorough  knowledge  or  its  meaning  and 
teachings,  that  thus  he  will  become  a  workman 
not  needing  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the 
word  of  truth;  we  can  see,  too,  that  thus  his  ser- 
mons will  contain  more  of  Scripture  truths,  and 
in  general  there  will  be  a  greater  tendency  to 
view  and  present  things  from  a  scriptural  stand- 
point; also,  that  thus  he  will  be  guarded  from  a 
great  deal  of  wild  misinterpretation,  accommo- 
dation and  spiritualizing  of  the  text.  These  things 
are  at  once  patent,  and  I  need  not  enlarge  them. 

There    are    other    advantages,    and    that    with 


4  8  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

reference  to  the  Kingdom  and  the  cause  at  large. 
To  these  I  would  call  your  attention. 

Expository  preaching  will  help  to  supply  the 
great  need  of  the  day  in  the  churches;  namely, 
men  and  women  soundly  rooted  and  grounded  in 
the  faith,  men  and  women  normally  and  naturally 
developed  in  the  Christian  graces  and  Christian 
constancy — that  is,  strong,  conservative,  and  yet 
progressive,   men   and  women. 

We  have  too  much  mushroom  Christianity  in 
our  churches  today — babes  desiring  to  be  fed 
with  the  milk  of  the  word,  and  the  milk  greatly 
diluted  at  that,  babes  not  able  to  take  strong 
meat,  and  not  able  to  do  strong  work.  In  all 
our  churches,  with  but  few  exceptions,  we  have 
many  such  members  as  this.  They  are  not  deeply 
rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith,  but  are  chil- 
dren tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about  with 
every  wind  of  doctrine;  they  are  people  whose 
religious  common  sense  has  never  been  developed, 
and  who  are  easily  offended; they  are  jerky  and 
uncertain,  having  no  stability  or  Christian  con- 
stancy; they  do  not  live  consistent,  satisfactory 
lives,  and  cannot  be  counted  upon  by  the  pastor 
in  an  emergency  or  in  his  absence,  but  must  be 
frequently  coddled  and  nursed  up.  In  other 
words,  though  they  have  been  in  the  churches 
for  years,  yet  they  are  not  men  and  women  in 
Christ,  and  are  not  doing  the  work  and  filling  the 
places  of  men  and  women. 

What  is  the  mattlr  with  these  people?  Why 
are  they  still  children  instead  of  adults?  Of 
course  the  greater  part  of  the  fault  is  with  them. 
But  so  far  as  the  pulpit  is  concerned,  one  fault 
is  this:  They  have  not  been  fed  enough  on  the 
word,  the  pure  word  of  God.  Too  much  artificial 
food  has  been  given  them,  froth  and  ambrosia 
and  syllabub  and  lullaby.  They  have  heard  too 
much  sky-scraping,  word-painting  and  thunder — ■ 
oil  of  which  was  manufactured,  not  out  of  God's 
word,  but  man's  word.  What  they  need  is  the 
word,  that  word  which  Paul  commanded  Timothy 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  4  9 

to  preach;  and  it  is  expository  preaching  that  will 
most  surely  give  them  the  word.  It  is  expository 
preaching,  the  plain,  earnest  elucidation  of  God's 
word  and  thoughts,  that  will  strengthen  them  in 
faith,  that  will  correct,  settle  and  develop  their 
lives,  that  will  lead  to  consecration  and  con- 
stancy, that  will  make  them  full-grown  men  and 
women  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  this  form  of  preach- 
ing, I  verily  believe,  more  than  any  other  that 
will  give  us  strong  churches,  strong  people,  and, 
in  the  end,  greater  and  more  satisfactory  results 
for  the  Master. 

It  is  true  that  such  preaching  may  not  be 
popular  with  the  masses,  nor  even  with  the 
majority  of  our  church  members.  But,  brethren, 
it  is  not  popularity  that  we  seek,  but  the  con- 
sciousness of  duty  done;  it  is  not  wood,  hay  or 
stubble  that  we  would  build  into  the  temple  of 
the  living  God,  of  which  Christ  Jesus  is  the 
foundation,  but  gold  and  silver  and  precious 
stones. 

In  the  midst,  then,  of  our  much  preaching  and 
many  temptations  to  do  otherwise,  let  us  not  fail, 
time  and  again,  to  come  to  God's  word  to  find, 
not  only  the  text,  but  also  the  thought,  the  mes- 
sage, the  sermon.  God  will  be  honored,  and 
His  people  will  be  built  up  in  the  most  holy  faith. 

Again,  it  is  expository  preaching  more  than 
any  other  form  of  preaching,  the  careful,  earnest 
presentation  of  the  pure  word  and  thoughts  of 
God  alone,  that  will  help  let  meet  and  counteract 
the  restless  and  irreverent  spirit  t)f  the  age.  This 
is  a  restless  and  irreverent  age.  Time  was  when 
men  were  content  to  live  three  score  and  ten  years 
in  seventy  years,  and  to  let  other  men's  affairs 
alone.  But  that  age  has  passed.  Now  men  must 
live  three  score  and  ten  years  in  forty  years,  and 
intermeddle  with  everything.  Men  are  irreverent 
now  and  put  the  unclean  hands  upon  things  both 
earthly  and  heavenly.  Not  only  God's  word,  but 
even  God  himself,  is  spoken  of  irreverently  and 
flippantly.     It  is  expository  preaching,  more  than 


50  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

any  other  preaching,  that  is  best  suited  to  meet, 
counteract  and  overcome  this  irreverence.  Ob- 
serve, it  is  expository  preaching  that  exalts, 
magnifies,  dignifies  God's  word.  Let  the  preacher 
come  frequently  before  the  people  with  a  mes- 
sage in  which  all  that  he  has  to  say  is  that  which 
God  has  said,  in  which  the  preacher  ever  exalts 
the  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  and  in  which  message 
man's  thought  is  ever  subservient  to  God's 
thought,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  men  will 
begin  to  realize  that  God's  word  is  a  holy  thing, 
a  thing  not  to  be  lightly  and  irreverently  spoken 
of,  or  handled  hastily  and  with  unclean  hands. 

And  when  God's  word  is  exalted,  God  himself 
is  also  honored.  When  men  are  taught  to  respect 
the  word  they  will  inevitably  respect  the  Author 
and  Giver  of  that  word.  Let  the  preacher,  ever 
and  anon,  with  his  earnest  exposition  of  God's 
word,  magnify  the  word  and  the  author  of  the 
word,  and  not  only  will  the  preacher  himself 
ehrink  from  all  approach  to  irreverence,  but  he 
will  find  that  those  who  hear  him,  even  the  chil- 
dren .  of  this  present  world,  will  learn  to  think 
of  the  Holy  and  Infinite  One  and  his  blessed  word 
with  increased  and  becoming  humility  and 
reverence. 

That  the  ministry  is  to  be  blamed  somewhat 
for  the  prevailing  irreverence  cannot  be  denied. 
The  restlessness  of  the  age  has  affected  and  in- 
fected God's  people  even,  and  through  them  it 
has  moved  the  ministry,  and  that,  alas,  too  far. 
The  cry  has  been:  "Give  us  something  new, 
something  fresh;"  and  in  our  laudable  desire  to 
dra\fr  men  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  we 
have  gone  too  far,  we  have  yielded  too  much  to 
the  pressure.  It  was  possible  to  gratify  this  rest- 
less craving  only  by  the  free  use  of  the  subject- 
sermon  pure  and  simple,  and  into  such  preaching 
we  have  gone,  and  that  beyond  measure.  Men 
have  used  God's  word,  not  as  a  text,  but  as  a 
pretext,  as  something  upon  which  to  hang  moral 
disquisitions,  as  a  mere  starting  point,  a  figure- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  51 

head,  and  nothing  more.  The  result  is  that  the 
irreverence  of  the  age,  instead  of  being  repressed, 
has  been  but  stimulated.  Finding  that  the  min- 
istry treated  God's  word  in  this  fashion,  the  world 
has  gone  on  and  treated  both  author  and  word 
alike.  Our  effort  to  capture  men  thus  for  Christ 
has  failed,  and  we  are  reaping  that  which  we 
have  sown. 

What  shall  we  do  to  correct  our  mistake,  to 
remedy  the  evil?  Let  us  return  to  the  preaching 
of  the  Avord,  God's  word,  not  ours.  The  cry  of 
the  younger  ministry  in  Germany  today  is: 
Enough  of  Hegel,  enough  of  Kant,  enough  of 
philosophy,  let  us  back  to  Christ.  Brethren,  let 
us  away  from  our  brilliant  subject,  surface-preach- 
ing; let  us  back  to  the  humble,  earnest  exposition 
of  God's  word.  The  entrance  of  His  truth,  not 
ours,   giveth  light. 


ESCHATOLOGY  IN  THE  PULPIT, 
ITS  USE  AND  ABUSE. 

By  Rev.  Q.  C.  DAVIS,  East  Durham,  N.  C. 

Eschatology  is  the  doctrine  of  the  last  things; 
and  in  former  times  was  concerned  principally 
with  the  four  doctrines  of  Death,  Judgment, 
Heaven  and  Hell.  But  in  modern  theology  it  has 
come  to  have  a  wider  scope,  and  includes  the 
doctrines  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord.  In  the  common  understand- 
ing, Eschatology  has  to  do  with  everything  that 
concerns  our  future  state.  This  has  grown  out  of 
the  fact  that  Eschatology  is  not  an  isolated  sec- 
tion of  theology,  but  has  logical  and  practical 
relations  to  all  other  doctrines  of  religion. 

The  prominent  place  which  the  eschatological 
doctrines  have  held  in  our  discussions  and  preach- 
ing is  due  to  the  psychological  principle  in  man 
that  makes  him  direct  all  his  efforts  toward  some 
end  in  view.  Man's  final  estimate  of  anything 
will  depend  on  his  conviction  as  to  its  ultimate 
worth.  No  man  will  undertake  to  do  a  great 
thing  that  is  to  last  but  for  a  little  while.  It  is 
because  we  are  vitally  related  to  an  eternal  future 
that  the  doctrines  of  Eschatology  assume  such 
prominent  importance,  and  command  our  serious 
interest. 

The  human  mind  refuses  to  rest  in  known  con- 
tradictions; and  consistency  has  always  been  de- 
manded of  any  scheme  of  doctrine  as  an  in- 
dispensable condition  of  acceptance.  Men  seek 
to  correlate  all  their  beliefs  in  such  way  as  to 
form  one  harmonious  whole.  There  must  of 
necessity  be  some  guiding  and  controlling  prin- 
ciple in  such  rational  efforts  of  men  to  construct 
a  system  of  doctrines  upon  which  they  can  rely 
with  confidence,  as  a  guide  to  a  final  blissful 
consummation. 

52 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  5  3 

Now  the  regulative  doctrine  in  theology  is  the 
Doctrine  of  God,  or  what  is  termed,  Theology 
Proper.  That  is  to  say,  our  doctrine  of  God  will 
determine  for  us  all  the  other  doctrines  of  theo- 
logy. Or  in  other  words,  what  we  believe  about 
God  will  determine  what  we  believe  about  every- 
thing else  concerned  with  religion. 

Denominations,  sects  and  schisms  are  organized 
around  their  respective  conceptions  of  God. 

The  Unitarian  is  what  he  is  because  of  wThat  he 
thinks  God  is.  He  believes  the  Unity  of  God  to 
be  such  that  it  forbids  any  such  Trinitarian  ex- 
planation as  Evangelical  denominations  hold. 
He  at  first  appealed  to  the  New  Testament  to  sup- 
port his  contention.  But  when  a  candid  and  more 
careful  interpretation  showed  that  New  Testa- 
ment writers  believed  and  taught  a  Trinitarian 
conception  of  the  Godhead,  the  Unitarian  prompt- 
ly disowned  the  New  Testament  as  an  infallible 
guide  in  matters  of  faith  and  practice,  and  modi- 
fied his  doctrine  of  inspiration  to  correspond 
thereto. 

The  Universalist  so  emphasizes  the  benevolence 
and  mercy  of  God  that  he  underestimates  God's 
justice  and  His  hatred  of  sin.  God  is  so  com- 
passionate and  complacent  toward  all  His  moral 
creatures  that  He  cannot  punish  eternally  the  im- 
penitent sinner.  A  light  estimate  of  the  exceed- 
ing sinfulness  of  sin  follows;  and  a  belief  in  the 
vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ  becomes  impossible. 
Christ's  death  has  only  a  moral  influence.  God 
will  restore  all;  and  will  brush  aside  all  other 
considerations  in   order  to   do  so. 

The  Presbyterian  belief  in  God's  sovereignty 
is  such  that  nothing  can  thwart  His  divine  and 
eternal  purpose.  This  is  something  so  empha- 
sized as  to  make  the  deity  seem  arbitary;  and 
to  impair  the  proper  freedom  of  man,  as  well  as 
to  make  man  despair  of  acceptable  effort,  since 
it  has  all  been  predetermined  for  him. 

The  Methodist's  view  of  God's  relation  to  His 
moral  creation  sometimes  causes  him  to  deny  om- 


54  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

niscience  to  the  Creator,  and  say  that  God  can- 
not certainly  know  what  a  free  moral  agent  will 
do.  Hence  the  Lord  appeals  to  men  to  accept 
Him,  and  waits  to  learn  what  the  outcome  will 
be.  This  emphasis  on  man's  freedom  accords  to 
man  some  discretionary  authority  which  would 
be  denied  him  under  different  conceptions  of  God's 
nature. 

The  Quaker  expects  from  God  that  "inner 
light,"  which  often  takes  precedence  over  the  light 
of  Holy  Scripture.  The  next  step  was  inevitable: 
the  inner  light  became  the  great  light,  and  super- 
seded the  authority  of  Christ  Himself;  and  the 
Hicksite  heresy,  denying  the  deity  of  Christ,  fol- 
lowed as  a  logical  sequence. 

The  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  God  accounts 
for  that  whole  system.  God  appoints  vicegerents 
on  the  earth  and  clothes  them  with  plenary 
authority.  Hence  the  Pope,  with  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  confessions,  absolutions  and  indulgencies; 
of  penance,  purgatory  and  masses;  of  prayer  to 
and  for  the  dead,  the  treasury  of  merit  and  the 
peculiar  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  atonement. 
Paschasius  Radbertus  began  his  argument  for 
Transubstantiation  with  an  appeal  to  the  omni- 
potence  of  God. 

And  the  Baptist  is  what  he  is  because  of  his 
doctrine  of  God.  The  Lordship  of  Christ  is  his 
controlling  doctrine.  He  believed  that  God  gave 
Christ  "to  be  head  over  all  things  to  the  church," 
and  "seated  Him  far  above  all  rule  and  authority 
and  power  and  dominion  and  every  name  that 
is  named." — Eph.  1:21-22.  Hence  Christ's  will  be- 
comes absolute  law  to  us.  Many  others  have 
thought  they  might  modify  His  commands  in  be- 
half of  a  more  agreeable  convenience;  or  in  the 
interests  of  higher  efficiency.  But  with  Baptists 
unflinching  loyalty  to  the  will  of  our  Lord  is  the 
highest  conception  of  duty.  We  sometimes  hear 
it  said  that  we  all  have  the  one  Lord  and  the  one 
faith;   and  all  that  we  need  now  to  make  us  all 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  5  5 

one  is  the  one  baptism.  But  we  have  never  yet 
had,  in  the  strictest  sense,  the  one  Lord.  When 
the  good  time  shall  come  that  we  all  have  the 
one  Lord,  then  the  one  faith  and  the  one  baptism 
will  speedily  follow.  Many  a  man  has  been  made 
a  Baptist  by  a  sort  of  military  respect  for  the 
commands  of  Christ. 

I.      Abuse  of  Eschatology  in  the  Pulpit. 

It  is  in  the  doctrine  of  Eschatology  that  the 
greatest  effects  of  the  doctrine  of  God  are  seen, 
Logical  deductions  from  the  doctrine  of  God  will 
often  lead  astray,  because  we  are  dealing  with 
the  element  of  the  infinite.  Inferences,  appar- 
ently legitimate,  drawn  from  the  infinite  attri- 
butes of  God,  are  often  contradictory.  For  ex- 
ample: deductions  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
justice  and  mercy  of  God.  The  trouble  is  that  we 
do  not  know  what  the  infinite  is.  God  is  certainly 
infinite  in  His  attributes;  but  these  infinite  attri- 
butes are  not  in  infinite  activity.  This  is  clearly 
seen  in  respect  to  God's  omnipotence.  God  sure- 
ly has  power  in  the  physical  universe;  yet  how 
graciously  restrained  are  its  operations,  Should 
He  turn  loose  His  omnipotence  in  unrestrained 
intensity  upon  the  physical  universe  the  end  could 
be  nothing  less  than  chaos. 

But  whatever  our  doctrine  of  God,  whence  de- 
rived, or  how  formed,  it  becomes  our  controlling 
belief;  and  we  strive  to  correlate  all  other  doc- 
trines to  it.  The  first  abuse  of  Eschatology  in  the 
pulpit  comes  from  unwarranted  inferences  and 
speculation  as  to  what  God  will,  or  will  not  do. 
Our  own  guesses  at  truth  are  sometimes  put  forth 
as  undoubted  verity.  Thoughtful  hearers  see 
their  inconclusiveness,  and  are  thus  driven  away 
from  the  truth. 

Nothing  is  taught  unless  it  is  emphasized. 
But  eschatological  doctrines  are  often  over  em- 
phasized until  the  just  proportions  of  truth  are 
lost,  and  men  revolt.      Unitarianism  in  New  Eng- 


56  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

land  was  the  direct  result  of  the  over  emphasis  of 
Calvinism.  The  answer  to  Jonathan  Edwards 
was  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Theodore  Parker, 
and  Wm.   E.   Channing. 

The  spirit  in  which  doctrines  of  final  things  is 
preached  is  of  great  importance.  More  care  is, 
perhaps,  needed  just  here  than  in  preaching  on 
any  other  Christian  themes:  for  the  emotions  are 
stirred  more  profoundly  by  the  doctrines  of 
Eschatology  than  by  any  other;  and  if  men  dis- 
sent from  them,  their  feelings  are  more  intense. 
There  is  something  in  human  nature  which  makes 
one  respond  in  kind  to  the  spirit  with  which  a 
truth  is  presented.  While  one  should  never 
preach  in  a  spirit  which  would  seem  to  apologize 
in  the  least  for  preaching  the  truth  at  all,  yet  the 
most  solemn  truths  may  be  presented  in  such 
intolerant  manner  as  to  cause  the  hearers  to  wish 
for  some  way  in  which  to  escape  their  conclu- 
sions. No  set  of  truths  requires  such  consum- 
mate wisdom  on  the  part  of  the  preacher  in 
preaching  them  as  those  that  have  to  do  with  the 
final  destiny  of  men. 

A  pronounced  abuse  of  the  doctrines  of  Escha- 
tology in  our  times  is  the  tendency  not  to  preach 
them  at  all,  except  as  incidentally  done  in  our 
revival  efforts.  This  is  due,  perhaps  in  part  at 
least,  to  the  fact  that  this  is  an  exceedingly  prac- 
tical age.  Men,  both  in  and  out  of  the  church, 
are  demanding  visible,  practical  results  from 
Christianity.  This  leads  us  to  lay  stress  on  doing 
things.  As  a  result,  Christianity  has  never  been 
so  altruistic,  philanthropic,  as  now.  Social  Ser- 
vice as  a  science,  and  as  a  pursuit,  has  arisen,  and 
is  demanding  the  right  of  way.  It  is  calling 
upon  Christianity  to  make  its  beneficent  results 
more  apparent  and  powerful  here  and  now  in 
every  condition  and  relationship  of  men.  In 
some  instances  this  takes  an  extreme  form.  Not 
long  since  a  theological  student  in  one  of  our 
Theological  Seminaries,  in  his  graduating  address, 
declared  that  the  gospel  of  the  future  would  not 


TPTE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  57 

be  so  much  a  salvation  from  hell,  as  a  salvation 
from  earthly  ills.  Social  Service  has  most  prob- 
ably come  to  stay,  and  very  properly  so:  for  it 
is  capable  of  rendering  a  signal  service  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  We  should  bid  it  God  speed, 
and  lend  it  our  hearty  co-operation.  But  we  must 
not  lose  the  true  doctrinal  perspective.  To  do 
so  will  be  disastrous.  Men  will  never  be  content 
to  be  good,  and  do  good  simply,  without  any 
reference  to  anything  beyond  the  grave.  They 
must  have  some  rational  explanation  of  the  obli- 
gations laid  upon  them;  and  are  ever  asking 
what  they  may  hope  as  a  result  of  the  faithful 
performance  of  their  Christian  duties.  Kant's 
Categorical  Imperatives  are  always  operative. 
When  men  have  asked:  "What  can  I  know? 
What  ought  I  to  do?"  they  are  sure  to  ask: 
"What  may  I  hope?"  And  that  is  right.  It  is 
the  intention  of  the  Creator  and  the  Redeemer. 
Peter  expressed  the  universal  question  of  man 
when  he  asked  the  Saviour:  "What  shall  we  have 
then?"  And  a  part  of  the  L#ord's  answer  was: 
"In  the  world  to  come  eternal  life." — an  escha- 
tological  reward. 

Failure  to  give  the  doctrines  of  Eschatology 
their  proper  prominence  in  the  pulpit,  will  result 
in  their  being  discussed  everywhere  else,  and  by 
everybody  else,  save  those  whose  proper  business 
it  is  to  discuss  them;  and  in  the  very  place,  above 
all  others,  where  they  should  be  discussed.  This 
very  condition  ponfronts  us  now;  and  the  pro- 
paganda of  Russellism  is  becoming  increasingly 
insistent.  Russellism  is  symptomatic.  It  signi- 
fies that  Eschatology  has  not  receievd  its  just 
meed  of  pulpit  treatment  in  evangelical  pulpits. 
Russellism  is  insidious  in  its  make  up  and  its 
methods.  It  is  a  compound  of  ancient  discarded 
heresies.  The  author's  attempt  to  escape  the 
logical  conclusions  of  evangelical  theology,  and 
the  evident  teachings  of  Scripture,  takes  many 
forms: 


58  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

1.  All  who  have  not  heard  the  gospel  in  this 
life,  such  as  the  heathen;  and  all  who  have  not 
had  a  fair  chance  in  this  world  (and  no  one  has 
had  a  fair  chance  unless  he  has  heard  Russellism 
fully  preached)  will  be  given  another  opportunity 
in  the  Millennial  Age — Second  Probationisni. 

2.  Immortality  is  conditional,  not  natural.  It 
is  given  to  those  only  who  accept  Christ.   Hence — 

3.  The  wicked  who  persist  in  rejection  will  be 
annihilated.  God  will  mercifully  put  the  sinner 
out  of  his  misery. 

4.  The  death  of  Christ,  was  not  a  vicarious 
sacrifice,  but  only  a  ransom. 

5.  Christ  is  divine,  but  not  deity  in  the 
evangelical  sense  of  the  word. 

6.  Organized  Christianity  is  the  result  of 
Reman  Catholicism.  Hence  local  churches  are 
unscriptural. 

These  and  other  tenets  of  Russellism  flourish 
most  where  Eschatology  is  most  neglected  in  the 
pulpit. 

II.      The  Use  of  Eschatology  in  the  Pulpit. 

The  best  time  to  preach  on  Eschatological 
themes  is  not  after  some  peripatetic  propagandist 
has  come  along  and  caused  a  defection  in  your 
congregation.  It  must  be  done  then;  of  course,  as 
a  matter  of  self  defense;  else  those  affected  will 
think  your  silence  is  an  .admission  of  the  truth 
of  the  strange  doctrines  which  they  have  heard; 
and  others  will  be  carried  away  also.  You  can- 
not help  but  preach  about  those  things  then.  But 
the  result  will  be  far  less  satisfactory  than  if 
preached  as  you  would  preach  on  Missions, 
Christian  Education,  Faith  and  Repentance  and 
such  subjects.  Those  affected  will  naturally  sus- 
pect that  your  preaching  is  not  primarily  in  the 
interest  of  truth,  but  only  an  effort  to  hold  them 
to  your  church. 

The  doctrines  of  Eschatology  should  be 
preached  as  regularly  and  as  consistently  as  other 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  59 

truths  of  revelation.  The  people  will  thus  become 
grounded  in  the  truth,  and  cannot  be  easily  led 
astray  on  these  things.  Of  course  there  will  be 
someone  now  and  then  who  will  think  that  the 
only  way  to  be  smart  is  to  be  different  from  other 
people.  You  need  not  pay  much  attention  to  him. 
He  will  not  do  much  harm  to  others.  It  is  the 
man  with  serious  convictions,  and  serious  purpose, 
who  works  harm  when  he  goes  astray  on  false 
doctrines. 

The  great  reformations  and  revivals  have  been 
accomplished  by  preaching  on  Eschatological 
themes.  The  burden  of  Peter's  sermon  at  Pente- 
cost was  the  Resurrection  of  Christ  with  its 
momentous  consequences.  Paul  on  Mar's  Hill 
preached  "Jesus  and  the  Resurrection,"  and  his 
appeal  was  to  repent  because  God  had  appointed 
a  day  of  Judgment,  and  a  Judge,  when  He  would 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness. 

The  Lutheran  Reformation  began  when  Luther 
attacked  Tetzel's  preaching  of  indulgences.  When 
Unitarianism  swept  New  England  it  carried  away 
every  Congregational  church  in  Boston  but  two. 
But  not  a  single  Baptist  church  departed  from 
the  faith.  The  Baptists  were  still  preaching  the 
old  evangelical  doctrines  of  Eschatology. 

In  the  Apostolic  age  the  doctrine  of  the  Resur- 
rection was  a  revival  theme.  Do  you  ever  hear 
that  as  the  subject  of  a  revival  message  now? 
It   is   sometimes  done. 

Once  when  walking  down  the  street  in  Little 
Rock,  Ark.,  I  heard  a  Salvation  Army  drum  a 
little  way  ahead.  As  I  drew  near  the  drum 
ceased  beating,  and  I  saw  a  woman  stand  up  on 
a  small  box,  and  she  said:  "Friends,  five  years 
ago  I  was  a  lost  sinner — a  woman  of  the  street. 
One  night  I  felt  that  life  was  not  worth  while; 
and  I  thought  it  would  be  best  to  put  an  end  to 
life,  and  thus  end  it  all.  I  was  so  miserable  I 
knew  not  what  to  do;  and  I  walked  along  the 
street  wretched,  broken  hearted,  without  home, 
or    friends.        As    I    passed    the    Salvation    Army 


6  0  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

headquarters  they  were  holding  a  meeting;  and  I 
heard  some  one  say:  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest."  I  stopped  and  listened.  Then  I  slipped  in 
and  sat  down  near  the  door.  Presently  some- 
one came  and  asked  me  to  give  my  heart  to 
Jesus.  I  said  I  was  too  great  a  sinner,  and  could 
not  hold  out  if  I  tried.  And  I  was  told  that  Jesus 
could  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who  would  come 
to  Him;  and  He  would  keep  me  saved.  Finally 
I  confessed  Him  as  my  Saviour.  And  Oh!  He 
not  only  saved  me,  but  by  His -blessed  power  He 
just  keeps  me  every  day,  and  helps  me  to  serve 
Him." 

That  is  the  real  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection. 
The  risen  Saviour,  ever  living,  with  His  everlast- 
ing power,  saving  His  people,  and  keeping  them 
saved.  Preach  it!  It  is  a  thousand  times  more 
effective  than  speculating  on  the  composition  and 
appearance  of  the  resurrection  body;  and  wonder- 
ing whether  we  shall  have  hair  forty  feet  long. 

Eschatology  has  always  furnished  the  great  re- 
vival themes,  and  when  they  are  stated  in  solemn 
seriousness,  with  unmistakable  kindness,  they 
seldom  fail  to  impress  profoundly.  "I  think  his 
soul  is  lost,"  said  Judson  of  a  noted  Burman  who 
had  just  died.  "Why?"  asked  the  Burman's 
friend.  "Because  he  was  not  a  believer  in  Christ," 
was  the  reply. 

Once  a  young  pastor  had  another  pastor  to  help 
in  a  revival.  The  visiting  pastor  preached  all 
through  the  series  on  God's  love  and  mercy,  and 
dwelt  upon  His  abounding  goodness  to  all.  No 
visible  results  followed.  When  he  had  gone  the 
young  pastor  thought  of  a  text  which  he  had 
heard  a  preacher  use  once  long  ago,  when  the 
young  pastor  was  a  boy:  "The  wicked  shall  be 
driven  away  in  his  wickedness,"  and  he  preached 
from  that  text.  He  told  the  people  of  the  awful 
wrath  of  God  that  awaited  the  impenitent,  and  a 
great  number  turned  to  the  Lord  that  night. 

But  one  should  preach  those  truths  only  in  the 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  61 

tenderest  manner.  Remember  the  example  of  our 
Lord.  He  wailed  aloud  over  Jerusalem,  looking 
down  at  the  city  through  his  tears,  and  foreseeing 
the  coming  dreadful  doom. 

I  have  often  been  asked  as  have  other  pastors 
to  preach  on  Heavenly  Recognition,  and  blessed 
experiences  have  come  to  me  through  preaching 
it.  There  were  two  grandmothers  in  a  congrega- 
tion that  were  not  members  of  the  church.  Each 
of  them  had  recently  lost  a  daughter.  At  the 
close  of  the  sermon  I  asked  the  quartette  to  sing 
a  little  song,  I  had  prepared,  to  the  tune  of  Auld 
Lang  Syne.      When  they  had  sung  the  stanza:  — 

"Our  hearts  were  breaking  and  we  wept, 

When  last  we  saw  them  here; 
But  love  has  followed  them  beyond, 

And  we  shall  know  them  there," 

those  two  grandmothers  came  forward  and  con- 
fessed Christ. 

One  day  I  was  out  hunting  with  a  man  who  was 
past  forty  years  of  age,  and  had  never  confessed 
Christ.  He  had  apparently  no  interest  in  religion. 
He  had  a  brother  who  had  been  a  pastor  for  ten 
years,  and  he  had  never  heard  him  preach.  We 
stopped  at  a  spring  to  get  some  water,  and  to 
rest.  He  began  to  talk  about  his  father  who  had 
died.  He  was  fond  of  his  father,  and  was  speak- 
ing tenderly  about  him.  He  said  to  me,  "Do  you 
think  we  shall  know  each  other  in  the  other 
world?"  I  said  "Yes,  if  you  prepare  to  go  where 
your  father  is."  Then  began  to  sing  softly 
that  sweet  old  hymn:  "Shall  we  meet  beyond  the 
river,  where  the  surges  cease  to  roll?"  With  the 
tears  streaming  down  his  face  he  stretched  forth 
his  hand  to  me  and  said:  "Brother  Davis,  I  do 
want  to  meet  him  in  that  better  land.  Pray  for 
me  that  I  may  prepare  to  go  there  too."  He  con- 
fessed the  Saviour,  and  is  now  a  deacon  in  his 
church. 

Beloved    brethren,    preach    the      doctrines      of 


62  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

Eschatology,  for  the  Lord  Jesus  preached  them. 
The  rich  man  lifted  up  his  eyes  in  torment;  and 
Lazarus  was  comforted  in  Abraham's  bosom.  The 
unprofitable  servant  was  cast  into  the  outer  dark- 
ness, where  there  was  wailing  and  gnashing  of 
teeth;  and  the  penitent  thief  went  with  Christ 
that  day  from  the  cross  to  the  Paradise  of  rest. 


A  VOICE  FROM  THE  PEW. 

By  T.  M.  PITTMAN,  Esq.,  Henderson,  N.  C. 

Littleton  closes  a  paragraph  in  his  Institutes 
on  the  law  of  English  land  tenure  with  "etc." 
which  "etc."  Lord  Coke  says  "embraceth  many 
things."  Of  like  inclusion  is  the  topic  just  an- 
nounced. The  good  preacher  who  arranged  the 
program  was  minded  that  the  lawyer  should  not 
get  beyond  his  subject.  I  acknowledge  his  suc- 
cess. There  is  no  escape  but  by  leaving  the 
church  or  taking  to  the  pulpit. 

At  the  outset  and  entirely  within  the  limits 
I  desire  to  make  acknowledgment  of  my  personal 
debt  to  the  ministry.  Whatever  good  there  is  in 
my  life  is  largely  due  to  their  personality  and 
teachings.  I  have  never  had  such  a  fitting  oc- 
casion for  this  acknowledgement.  I  am  grate- 
ful for  the  oppoi  tunity. 

I  come  directly  to  the  matter  in  hand.  I  do 
not  presume  to  play  the  part  of  critic.  It  is  en- 
tirely possible,  however,  that  some  things  may 
be  seen  at  a  different  angle  from  the  pew  than 
is  presented  to  the  pulpit.  It  is  also  true  that 
the  lights  and  shadows  are  not  the  same  upon 
every  pew.     I  speak  with  deference. 

Students  of  secular  periodical  literature  receive 
two  sharp  suggestions: 

1.  The  large  space  given  to  the  discussion  of 
religion,  both  in  its  philosophical  and  its  practi- 
cal aspects,  suggests  a  well-sustained  public  inter- 
est in  this  subject. 

2.  The  insistent  claim  of  a  falling  off  in  at- 
tendance upon  religious  services,  if  true,  indicates 
as  certainly  a  lack  of  public  interest  in  our  man- 
ner of  presenting  that  subject. 

Quite  likely  the  defection  is  exaggerated,  yet 
it  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  many  who  ought  to 
be   reached   by  the  preaching  of   the   gospel   and 

63 


64  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

the  ministry  of  the  churches  are  apparently  be- 
yond their  influence,  and  the  voice  of  church 
and  preacher  is  without  authority  to  many  who 
even  profess  to  walk  our  way.  As  illustrative 
of  this  same  divergent  attitude,  it  is  said  that  at 
a  great  socialistic  gathering  every  reference  to 
Christian  churches  was  received  with  sneers  and 
hisses,  but  that  there  was  no  hostile  demonstra- 
tion  at  any  mention  of  the  name  of  Jesus. 

I  believe  it  was  Dr.  Austin  Phelps  who  gave 
expression  to  one  of  the  most  profound  and  im- 
pressive utterances  of  the  last  century.  It  was 
this:  "A  false  principle  wrought  into  real  life 
always  works  itself  out  in  disaster."  The  atti- 
tude of  the  world  today  challenges  our  position. 
It  denies  that  we  are  sounding  the  gospel  mes- 
sage with  a  clear  and  true  note.  George  W. 
Cable  wrote  some  years  ago:  "Clear  thought, 
clear  understanding  and  clear  statement  are  the 
demands  of  the  hour."  And  such  is  the  urgent 
demand   of   Christianity   today. 

I  have  an  impression — I  will  state  it  stronger — 
a  conviction — that  there  are  conditions  existing 
with  us  that  tend  to  weaken  our  message: 

A  False  Note. 

Our  churches  and  ministry  are  largely  charac- 
terized by  earnestness  and  zeal  for  moral  and 
social  reforms.  I  have  felt  for  a  long  time  that 
there  lacked  the  clear  note  of  conviction  concern- 
ing God  and  His  relation  to  man.  Every  moral 
and  social  faddist  appears  to  think  the  church 
and  the  ministry  designed  for  exploiting  his 
peculiar  fad,  and  because  many  of  the  ends  in 
view  appear  to  be  good,  many  of  our  ministers 
feel  impelled  to  stay  the  great  work  to  which 
they  are  called  and  respond  to  such  demands.  The 
New  York  Times  discussed  in  a  recent  editorial 
the  campaign  instituted  by  the  Bishop  of  London 
against  immorality  in  the  theater,  and  charac- 
terized it  as  "Clearly  undertaking  to  cure  a 
malady  by  doctoring  the  symptoms."     The  editor 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  65 

then  went  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  declaring: 
"There  is  plenty  for  the  church  to  do.  The  frame 
of  mind  and  habit  of  thought  .  .  .  must  be 
attacked  and  cured." 

There  may  have  been  a  time  when  "reform" 
and  "reformer"  were  decent  words  to  address  to 
serious  minded,  thoughtful  men,  but  it  has 
hardly  been  so  in  our  day.  Li  Hung  Chang,  the 
noted  Chinese  statesman  and  scholar,  spoke  out 
of  a  full  heart  when  he  said,  "I  hate  a  profes- 
sional reformer  as  I  hate  a  nagging  woman;  each 
has  the  idea  that  the  other  party  was  not  en- 
dowed with  even  a  place  for  brains,  to  say  nothing 
of  possessing  any  mentality." 

Let  us  understand  that  Christianity  is  of  Christ 
and  that  no  reform  is  comparable  to  that  new 
life  of  which  He  is  heart  and  soul. 

Another  false  note  is  a  tendency  to  magnify 
the  mechanism  of  religion  and  to  minimize 
Christ.  In  the  careless,  superficial  terminology, 
now  current,  the  various  agencies  are  often  given 
a  vital  emphasis.  The  one  mechanism  of  the  New 
Testament,  if  such  speech  be  permissible,  is  that 
of  holding  up  Christ.  "And  I  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth  will  draw  all  men  unto  me." 
Orderly  methods  and  systems  of  co-operation  are 
convenient  and  useful.  Only  let  us  not  hide 
Christ  behind  the  machinery  upon  which  we  un- 
dertake to  lift  Him  up. 

A  Distorted  Vision. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  pettiness  in  dealing  with 
religious  thought  and  life.  The  thought  of  the 
world  is  large,  and  small  things  are  not  impres- 
sive. If  God  is  not  greater  than  our  wizards  of 
finance  and  invention,  if  heaven  surpass  not  the 
homes  of  our  rich  neighbors  or  our  modern  city, 
where  is  the  appeal  of  God  and  heaven?  Is  our 
comprehension  of  God  as  large  as  the  banker's 
comprehension  of  finance,  or  our  view  of  God's 
economics  as  comprehensive  as  corporations 
executives    have    of    business    organization?      As 


66  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

we  face  these  questions  we  must  recognize  the 
fact  that  we  are  making  cheap  and  common  the 
most  profound,  vital  things  of  the  universe.  The 
world  is  making  great  men  in  the  fields  of  thought 
and  achievement.  We  are  making  petty  men, 
and  wonder  why  we  do  not  compel  the  world's 
great  thinkers  and  doers  to  join  us.  The  world 
has  no  time  for  petty  things  except  as  they  serve 
to  amuse  its  idle  moments.  Religion  is  a  failure 
as  an  entertainment,  yet  we  urge  entertainment 
as  the  feature  of  our  public  services.  Attractive 
houses,  attractive  music,  attractive  preaching, 
and  attractive  hours  are  emphasized,  and  we  per- 
suade men  that  everything  in  religion  waits  upon 
their  taste,  comfort,  convenience  and  approval. 
Who  ever  hears  of  an  invitation  to  one  of  our  great 
churches  urged  upon  the  ground  that  we  will  have 
a  very  earnest  and  faithful  presentation  of  the  gos- 
pel? What  is  the  result?  Why  men  take  us  at  our 
own  valuation  and  leave  us  alone,  not  because 
they  are  irreligious  or  immoral,  but  because  they 
do  not  find  us  worth  while.  Let  us  remember 
that  it  is  a  question  of  values.  What  is  the 
greatest  thing  in  the  world?  Religion  was  never 
designed  to  run  with  the  currents  of  the  world, 
but  counter  to  them — to  cross,  and  divert  and 
control  them.  It  is  a  compelling  power.  Light 
minds  are  pleased  with  trifles,  but  strong  men  are 
not  won  that  way.  A  strong,  clear  comprehension 
of  the  eternal  verities,  and  a  strong,  clear 
presentation  of  them  is  the  demand  of  the  hour. 
I  may  only  mention  as  I  pass  from  this  thought 
the  same  tendency  in  the  common  use  of  charac- 
terless hymns,  and  the  familiar  address  toward 
God.  It  may  be  well  to  remember  that  even 
those  who  leaned  on  Jesus'  bosom  called  him 
"Lord"  and  "Master,"  and  though  full  of  love 
and  tenderness  He  bore  himself  with  dignity  and 
"spake  as  one  having  authority."  Better  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Scriptures  would  relieve  this 
situation.  Green  in  the  History  of  the  English 
People  says:     "Even  to  common  minds  familiarity 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  6  7 

with  grand  poetic  imagery  in  prophet  and  apo- 
calypse gave  a  loftiness  and  ardor  of  expression 
that  with  all  its  tendency  to  exaggeration  and 
bombast  we  may  prefer  to  the  slipshod  vulgar- 
isms of  today." 

Sapping  the  Foundations. 

There  is  a  noticeable  tendency  to  ignore  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christianity — the  fundamental, 
vital  truths  concerning  God.  redemption,  sin  and 
the  forgiveness  of  sin,  regeneration.  Strong 
Christian  character  apart  from  positive  convic- 
tions of  the  truth  is  out  of  the  question.  Unfor- 
tunately our  views  of  what  constitutes  Christian 
character  are  not  always  clear.  Abou  Ben  Adhem 
may  be  good  poetry,  but  is  poor  theology.  Hav- 
ing a  decent  character  and  being  a  kind  neigh- 
bor does  not  make  one  a  Christian.  I  recall  a 
revival  meeting  invitation  something  like  this: 
"If  you  have  made  up  your  mind  to  make  your 
life  subject  to  God's  will  come  forward  and  unite 
with  the  church."  This  seems  to  make  it  wholly 
a  matter  for  the  individual.  He  may  be  saved, 
unsaved,  saved  again  and  so  on  indefinitely,  while 
God  looks  on  without  any  part  in  it.  It  is  one  way 
of  adding  to  the  church  membership  but  a  little 
suggestive  of  the  conversation  between  an  Eng- 
lish and  a  French  surgeon  about  a  very  difficult 
and  hazardous  operation.  The  Englishman,  in 
reply  to  the  other's  inquiry,  said  he  had  performed 
the  operation  five  times,  succeeding  four  times. 
Why  I  have  performed  it  a  hundred  times  said 
the  Frenchman.  With  what  success?  he  was 
asked.  "Oh,  the  patients  all  died,  but  the  opera- 
tion was  brilliant." 

Departure  From  Principle. 

The  last  of  these  tendencies  to  which  I  shall 
refer  is  the  subversion  of  the  old  Baptist  prin- 
ciple of  the  Separation  of  Church  and  State.  In 
the  days  of  our  weakness  and  struggle  for  exist- 


68  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

ence  we  urged  this  principle  with  might  and 
main.  We  won  out.  Now  that  we  have  waxed 
great  and  are  as  the  sands  of  the  sea  for  multi- 
tude, and  our  banner  waves  triumphantly  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  we  are  placing  our- 
selves alongside  the  Church  of  England  and  the 
Church  of  Rome  as  offenders  against  this  princi- 
ple— with  the  difference  that  they  have  never  ad- 
mitted it  as  a  principle  at  all,  while  we  have  been 
its  peculiar  champions.  In  North  Carolina  during 
the  past  few  years  the  churches  have  repeatedly 
meddled  with  the  law-making  prerogative  of  the 
State  in  respect  of  Sunday  laws,  divorce,  public 
education,  child  labor,  liquor  dispensaries  and 
prohibition.  I  believe  our  Baptist  churches  took 
part  in  all  or  nearly  all  these  questions.  Our 
leaders  went  so  far  in  political  bargaining  in  at 
least  one  instance  that  we  are  ashamed  to  have  it 
mentioned.  A  Virginia  Baptist  Association  is  re- 
ported to  have  recently  approved  President  Wil- 
son's Mexican  policy,  and  the  end  is  not  yet  in 
sight.  The  only  rift  in  the  cloud  is  the  action  of 
Secretary  Johnston,  Dr.  Vann  and  Dr.  Poteat  op- 
posing a  constitutional  amendment  in  respect  of 
the  use  of  the  Bible  in  our  public  schools,  and 
many  of  our  brethren  have  scarcely  recovered 
yet  from  the  shock  and  surprise  of  this  recurrence 
to  sound  principle. 

The  life  of  Christianity  is  spiritual;  its  power 
is  ethical.  Within  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  and 
the  ethical  it  is  supreme.  Beyond  any  other 
power  or  influence  it  lays  hold  upon  the  individ- 
ual and  adjusts  him  to  every  environment  of 
life.  It  makes  him  a  loyal  citizen  of  pagan  Rome 
and  of  Christian  America.  Whether  he  is  bond  or 
free,  his  spirit  is  refined  and  his  character  en- 
nobled. It  overshadows  all  human  greatness  and 
illuminates  the  dark  places  of  earth.  God  is 
its  one  source,  its  appeal  is  the  commanding  per- 
sonality of  Jesus  and  its  weapons  are  spiritual — 
"Not  by  might  nor  by  power  but  My  spirit,  saith 
the  Lord."     Man's  life  is  complex.     His  relations 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  69 

vary.  The  church,  the  state,  the  family,  each 
within  its  own  province  is  entitled  to  his  al- 
legiance and  his  best  individual  thought  and 
serA'ice.  It  was  under  a  pagan  ruler  that  Christ 
said:  "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are 
Caesar's  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's." 

The  law  of  the  state  is  not  the  absolute, 
ideal  right,  but  experimental  and  political,  having 
reference  to  the  state  of  society  and  public  opin- 
ion and  changing  as  these  change.  The  law  does 
not  appeal  to  the  conscience  or  moral  conscious- 
ness of  a  man.  It  is  not  persuasive,  it  is  the  ex- 
ercise of  authority  and  force.  It  bends  and  con- 
trols, and  punishes,  and  destroys  men. 

The  law  of  Christ  is  ideal.  It  is  absolutely 
right.  It  works  upon  the  life  and  conscience. 
There  can  be  no  bad  communities  composed  of 
good  men.  Good  men  will  make  good  citizens, 
good  neighbors  and  good  states  with  good  laws. 
The  work  of  the  churches  is  to  make  good  men, 
so  that  they  shall  make  the  world  good  through 
the  great  principles  of  right  and  goodness  which 
are  from  God.  It  is  distressing  to  see  Christian 
ministers  giving  up  the  fight  just  as  the  victory  is 
won.  Everywhere  men  of  the  world  are  confess- 
ing that  secular  laws  are  impotent  to  deal  with 
the  great  moral  wrongs  of  society.  Guizot  in 
his  profound  discussion  of  the  History  of  Civili- 
zation, bases  it  upon  two  facts — the  melioration 
of  the  inward  man  and  the  melioration  of  his 
external  condition.  Speaking  of  Christianity  in 
this  connection,  he  says:  "Christianity  was  in  no 
way  addressed  to  the  social  condition  of  man;  it 
distinctly  disclaimed  all  interference  with  it.  It 
commanded  the  slave  to  obey  his  master.  It 
attacked  none  of  the  great  evils,  none  of  the  gross 
acts  of  injustice,  by  which  the  social  system  of 
that  day  was  disfigured;  yet  who  but  will  ac- 
knowledge that  Christianity  has  been  one  of  the 
greatest  promoters  of  civilization?  And  where- 
fore? Because  it  has  changed  the  interior  condi- 
tion of  man,  his  opinions,  his  sentiments:  because 


70  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

it    has    regenerated    his    moral    and    intellectual 
character." 

God's  rule  is  over  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
men,  and  when  our  churches  seek  to  influence^ 
the  outward  lives  of  men  except  through  their 
inward  spirits,  they  violate  the  vital  principle  of 
Christianity.  It  is  no  justification  or  excuse  that 
we  claim  to  be  doing  good.  So  did  Saul  of 
Tarsus  claim  and  so  did  the  judges  of  the  In- 
quisition, so  do  Catholics  today  when  they  ask 
public  funds  for  their  schools  and  so  does  the 
Church  of  England  in  its  grasp  of  public 
education  in  England.  Who  shall  judge  us? 
When  Charles  Lee,  who  at  least  compromised 
himself  with  the  British,  sought  the  destruction 
of  Arnold  for  his  treachery,  one  wrote  something 
like  this —  "It  argues  the  effrontery  of  baseness 
for  one  man  to  hunt  another  to  his  death  for 
that  which  his  own  hand  has  been  raised  to  do." 
How  dare  we  rebuke  the  presumption  of  others 
in  doing  what  we  are  also  trying  to  do? 

Before  passing  from  this  I  wish  it  to  be  clearly 
understood  that  I  am  not  opposing  the  laws  which 
so  many  brethren  would  have  the  churches  urge. 
As  an  individual  and  a  citizen  I  am  giving  nearly 
all  of  them  my  hearty  support,  and  recognize  the 
propriety  of  every  other  man  doing  the  same. 

Constructive  Work. 

But  I  must  not  detain  you,  and  close  with  one 
further  thought — and  that  is  to  propose  some- 
thing better  than  the  petty,  weak,  mischievous 
things  of  which  I  have  been  speaking.  And  there 
is  something  better,  something  real  and  vital. 
Our  God  is  supreme.  He  rules  the  universe — 
power  and  majesty  and  riches  are  in  His  hands. 
His  plans  for  the  Kingdom  are  constructive,  and 
the  first  step  in  the  Christian  program  is  a  new 
life — "Ye  must  be  born  again." 

Mr.  Green  in  his  History  of  the  English  People, 
makes  this  statement  of  the  Calvinist  thought: 
"But  religion  in  its  deepest  and  innermost  sense 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  71 

had  to  do  not  with  churches  but  with  the  individ- 
ual soul."  Our  churches  must  realize  that  they 
are  dealing  with  souls,  making  thought,  convic- 
tion, character,  manhood — after  the  model  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  constructive  work  of 
making  men  who  will  deal  righteously,  and  there- 
fore wisely,  in  every  relation  and  every  situation. 
This  is  the  work  that  brought  the  Son  of  God  to 
the  sublimest  sacrifice  the  world  has  ever  wit- 
nessed. It  is  the  work  which  has  made  possible 
every  notable  achievement  of  civilization.  Oh 
the  shame  of  a  man  called  to  the  Christian  mini- 
stry and  to  such  a  work  turning  aside  to  the  slave- 
driving  career  of  a  reformer! 

A  notable  book  just  from  the  press  furnishes 
an  intensely  interesting  view  of  the  power  of 
the  Gospel  apart  from  any  reformatory  attach- 
ments. I  refer  to  the  memoir  of  Li  Hung  Chang, 
the  Chinese  scholar  and  statesman.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  the  history  of 
the  last  century.  The  book  shows  him  in  early 
life  hating  the  Christians  and  desiring  their  ruin. 
A  little  later  he  becomes  slightly  more  tolerant, 
then  he  wishes  that  they  might  have  entire  free- 
dom. Still  later  he  compares  the  doctrines  of 
Christ  with  the  teachings  of  Confucius  and  de- 
clares that  if  he  lived  in  America  or  Europe  he 
would  wish  to  be  known  as  a  Christian.  As  a 
final  touch  we  find  him  admitting  two  poor  Chris- 
tians to  audience  and  when  they  fall  into  earnest 
prayer  for  him  we  see  him  deeply  moved  and  ap- 
preciative of  their  concern  for  him  and  dismissing 
them  with  kindness.  As  we  read  this  record  a  great 
light  comes  to  us  giving  a  clearer  insight  into  re- 
cent conditions  in  China  than  could  possibly 
come  to  us  in  any  report  from  the  missionaries. 
The  silent  influence  upon  the  inner  life  of  the  peo- 
ple, heart  speaking  to  heart,  that  was  construc- 
tive work  and  it  was  effective. 

Last  September  Lord  Haldane,  Lord  Chancellor 
of  Great  Britain  in  a  notable  address  before  the 
American  Bar  Association  on  Higher  Nationality 


72  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

said:  "But  the  guide  to  which  the  citizen 
mostly  looks  is  just  the  standard  recognized  by 
the  community,  a  community  made  up  mainly  of 
those  fellow-citizens  whose  good  opinion  he  re- 
spects and  desires  to  have.  He  has  everywhere 
round  him  an  object  lesson  in  the  conduct  of 
decent  people  towards  each  other  and  towards 
the  community  to  which  they  belong,  without 
such  conduct  and  the  restraints  which  it  im- 
poses there  could  be  no  tolerable  social  life,  and 
real  freedom  from  interference  would  not  be  en- 
joyed. It  is  the  instinctive  sense  of  what  to  do 
and  what  not  to  do  in  daily  life  and  behavior 
that  is  the  source  of  liberty  and  ease."  It  must 
be  then  that  the  influence  which  sets  these  stand- 
ards is  the  influence  which  makes  society  and 
the  life  of  the  people,  and  our  great  work  is 
to  set  up  the  standards  of  Christ  that  men  shall 
be  drawn  by  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall 
make  them  free. 

Columbia  University  has  a  greater  number  of 
students  than  any  other  American  University, 
and  its  financial  resources  amount  to  $55,000,000, 
yet.  Presilent  Butler  fervently  protests  against 
the  current  view  that  Columbia  can  claim  prece- 
dence on  account  of  the  great  number  brought 
under  the  influence  of  the  university.      He  says: 

"The  real  test  and  measure  of  a  university's 
efficiency  are  not  the  number  of  students  en- 
rolled, the  size  of  its  endowment,  or  the  mag- 
nificence of  its  physical  equipment.  The  true 
test  and  measure  are  to  be  found  in  the  pro- 
ductive scholarship  of  the  university's  teachers 
and  in  the  quality  of  the  men  and  women  who 
go  out  with  the  stamp  of  the  university's  ap- 
proval  upon  them." 

The  social  life  of  Athens  "was  such  that  none 
but  very  able  men  could  take  any  pleasure  in 
it;  on  the  other  hand,  she  offered  attractions 
such  as  men  of  the  highest  ability  and  culture 
could  find  in  no  other  city.  And  in  the  century 
between    530    and    430    B.C.,   she   produced    four- 


THE  PREACHING  POP,  TO-DAY.  73 

reen  men  who  have  not  been  equalled  by  any 
nation  in  any  century  of  the  world's  history.  In 
Athens  was  an  environment  of  intellectual  great- 
ness fruitful  of  intellectual  products,  forcing 
upon  us  the  thought  that  our  social  and  com- 
munity life  must  have  its  legitimate  fruitage  and 
such  attractive  and  repulsive  power  a,s  shall 
keep  steady  the  development  of  that  community 
in  harmony  with  its  dominant  principle  or  idea. 
There  is  also  an  emphasis  of  the  thought  so 
forcefully  presented  by  John  Stuart  Mill:  "Sud- 
den effects  in  history  are  generally  superficial. 
Causes  which  go  deep  down  into  the  roots  of 
future  events  produce  the  most  serious  parts 
of  their  effect  only  slowTly." 

So  it  is  borne  upon  us  that  thoughtful  men 
are  awaking  to  the  idea  that  everything  de- 
pends   upon    the    real    man — the    inward    man. 

The  constructive  work  of  Christianity  build- 
ing upon  the  new  life  is  to  create  "the  frame  of 
mind  and  habit  of  thought"  consonant  with  the 
spirit  and  teaching  of  God,  and,  as  a  little 
leaven  working  in  the  loaf  bread,  make  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  His  Christ. 

Lowell  expresses  something  of  the  thought 
that  I  have  been  urging: 

BE  NOBLE!    and   the  nobleness  that  lies 

In    other    men,    sleeping,    but    never    dead, 

Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own: 

Then  wilt  thou  see  it  gleam  in  many  eyes, 

Then   will    pure   light   around    thy   path    be   shed, 

And  thou  wilt  never  more  be  sad  and  lone?" 


THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  COUNTRY 
CHURCH. 

By  S.  Z.  BATTEN,  D.D.,  Philadelphia. 

Several  years  ago  thinking  men  became  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  preserving  the 
Adirondack  forests  in  the  State  of  New  York.  It 
was  explained  that  the  preservation  of  the  forests 
was  necessary  in  order  to  maintain  the  proper 
flow  of  water  in  the  Hudson  river.  This  river 
the  great  commercial  highway  of  the  state,  fur- 
nishes power  for  countless  mills  and  factories  and 
adds  incalculably  to  the  wealth  of  the  people.  Yet 
this  river  was  in  danger  of  losing  its  prestige  and 
its  power.  Up  among  the  hills  and  mountains 
are  the  great  trees  with  their  countless  leaves  that 
shade  the  ground  and  keep  it  moist  and  cool.  On 
every  hillside  and  in  every  valley  are  little  bub- 
bling springs;  from  each  spring  a  narrow  thread 
of  silver  goes  sparkling  down  over  stones  and 
under  moss;  now  it  is  met  by  another  thread  of 
silvery  water;  on  they  go  together,  lost  in  one 
another's  life;  now  the  thread  grows  into  a  rill; 
the  rill  swells  into  a  brook,  the  brook  expands  in- 
to a  creek,  the  creek  widens  out  into  the  majestic 
and  beautiful  river.  The  cutting  off  of  the  for- 
ests meant  the  drying  up  of  those  numberless 
springs  far  away  in  the  mountains;  and  the  dry- 
ing up  of  those  springs  meant  the  dwindling  of  the 
mighty  river.  Dry  up  the  springs,  cut  off  the 
head  waters,  and  the  river  will  dwindle  and  nar- 
row.    Which  thing  is  an  allegory. 

What  the  thousands  of  springs  far  away  in  the 
mountains  are  to  the  Hudson  River  that  the 
country  churches  are  to  the  mighty  river  of 
Christian  influence  flowing  through  our  land. 
Cut  off  the  head  waters,  let  the  country  churches 
die,  and  the  city  churches  will  dwindle  and  the 
whole  cause  of  Christ  will  feel  the  effect.  The 
question  of  the  country  church  is  one  of  the  most 
74 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  75 

vital  questions  facing  us  at  this  hour.  In  a  large 
sense  the  tide  of  city  life  rises  or  falls  with  the 
rise  or  fall  of  the  country  church.  Thus  far  the 
question  of  the  country  church  has  been  almost 
wholly  neglected;  for  a  generation  and  more  the 
attention  of  man  has  been  directed  to  the  city 
church  and  its  problem.  We  have  many  volumes 
dealing  with  the  Social  Problem,  but  these  have 
dealt  almost  exclusively  with  city  life  and  city 
conditions.  In  these  latter  days  we  have  heard 
much  of  Social  Service,  and  thus  far  nearly  all  of 
the  books  relating  to  this  important  department 
of  work  have  dealt  with  the  city  and  its  needs. 
But  this  is  only  one  half  of  the  problem;  in  fact  the 
question  of  the  city  is  largely  the  question  of  the 
country.  Did  time  permit  I  could  show  from  his- 
tory that  nations  have  been  strong  or  weak,  they 
have  grown  or  they  have  decayed  according  to  the 
condition  of  the  country  districts.  The  cities 
grew  at  the  expense  of  the  country;  with  the  pas- 
sing away  of  the  sturdy  patriotic  yeoman  class 
and  the  decline  of  the  rural  districts  there  came 
a  decline  of  the  very  nation  itself.  Rome  began 
to  die  in  the  country  before  it  began  to  die  in  the 
city;  the  decline  of  the  country  caused  the  decline 
of  Rome.  If  America  loses  its  sturdy,  patriotic, 
pure  hearted  and  Christian  rural  population,  it 
will  go  to  the  rubbish  heap  of  history  with  Baby- 
lon and  Rome.  However,  I  am  not  dealing  with 
history  but  with  life  today,  and  so  I  cannot  pur- 
sue this  inquiry  any  further. 

1.     The  Condition  of  the  Country  Church. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  quote  statistics 
with  reference  to  the  country  churches.  But  in 
the  past  few  years  at  least  ten  thousand  country 
churches  have  died  in  our  land,  and  probably 
twice  as  many  today  are  in  a  weak  and  dying 
state.  What  are  the  conditions?  And  what  are 
the  causes? 

Throughout  the  world  there  is  a  most  marked 


7fi  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

movement  today:  It  is  the  drift  toward  the  city. 
It  is  sometimes  supposed  that  this  is  an  American 
phenomenon,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  a 
world-wide  movement.  London  is  over  two 
thousand  years  old,  but  four-fifths  of  its  growth 
belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Prom  18  50 
to  IS 90  Berlin  grew  faster  than  New  York  City. 
Rome  has  increased  in  population  more  than  fifty 
per  cent,  since  1890.  The  cities  are  growing 
more  rapidly  than  the  country;  in  many  cases 
they  are  growing  at  the  expense  of  the  country. 
In  nearly  every  state  the  rural  population  is  de- 
creasing; east  and  west  we  observe  the  same 
movement,  in  the  older  and  in  the  newer  states. 
In  the  state  of  Iowa  there  are  ninety-nine  coun- 
ties; of  these,  seventy-one  counties  have  de- 
creased in  population  during  the  past  decade.  The 
counties  showing  any  gains  are  those  with  cities; 
the  counties  without  larger  towns  or  cities  showed 
a  decrease. 

With  this  shifting  of  population  there  has  come 
a  change  in  the  population  itself.  A  generation 
ago  in  all  of  our  states  the  rural  population  as 
a  rule  was  American  Protestant,  church  going  and 
homogeneous.  Today  in  many  sections  the  popu- 
lation is  largely  foreign,  Catholic  or  nothing,  non- 
church  going  and  heterogeneous.  The  Americans 
have  gone  and  the  Hungarians,  the  Bohemians, 
the  Italians,  the  Germans  and  Russians  have 
taken  their  places.  I  know  a  farming  district  in 
New  Jersey  where,  when  I  was  a  boy,  nearly  every 
farmer  owned  his  farm  and  practically  every  fam- 
ily attended  church  regularly.  I  have  seen  the 
old  church  yard  in  the  village  filled  with  farmers' 
teams  on  a  Sunday  morning.  But  a  total  change 
has  passed  over  the  whole  section.  Some  of  the 
older  farmers  are  dead;  others  have  moved  into 
town;  nine-tenths  of  the  young  people  have  left 
the  farms.  Today  these  farms  are  rented  out  to 
a  poorer  and  inferior  class  of  tenants,  and  the 
church  yard  is  empty  Sunday  morning. 

Another  thing;    with  this  change  in  the  popu- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  7  7 

lation  of  the  rural  districts  there  has  come  a 
change  quite  as  significant  in  the  ownership  of 
the  farms.  A  generation  ago  as  a  rule  the  farms 
were  owned  by  the  men  who  cultivated  them. 
Today  this  has  changed  or  it  is  fast  changing. 
Some  time  ago  I  was  discussing  this  question 
with  a  banker  in  an  Iowa  town  of  some  five  thou- 
sand population.  He  showed  me  how  in  the  past 
few  years  men  have  bought  up  the  farms  in  the 
neighborhood  so  that  today  we  find  many  men 
owning  from  five  hundred  to  two  thousand  acres. 
The  owners  of  the  large  farms  live  in  the  town; 
where  once  we  had  half  a  dozen  farmers  living 
on  their  own  farms  we  now  have  one  land  pro- 
prietor with  one  or  two  tenant  families.  This 
explains  in  part  two  things:  the  change  in  the 
population  and  the  decrease  in  the  rural  popula- 
tion. 

The  people  are  leaving  the  country  and  the 
country  towns.  For  a  generation  and  more  there 
has  been  a  steady  stream  of  young  life  flowing 
from  the  country  into  the  cities.  The  more  am- 
bitious and  energetic  young  people  are  leaving  the 
country  for  the  city.  Several  causes,  some  ex- 
pulsive so  far  as  the  country  is  concerned,  some 
attractive  so  far  as  the  city  is  concerned,  have 
contributed  to  this  result.  The  more  active  and 
capable  have  left  the  country  because  they  tire 
of  its  monotony;  because  they  find  few  opportu- 
nities for  progress;  because  they  have  the  feeling 
that  the  country  is  crude  and  inferior.  They 
have  gone  into  the  cities  because  they  believed 
the  cities  offered  larger  opportunity  and  richer 
prizes;  because  they  wanted  to  be  in  the  midst  of 
life  and  its  movements;  because  they  had  the  no- 
tion that  the  city  represented  a  higher  type  of  civi- 
lization. The  consequence  is  that  the  country  is 
drained  of  the  more  active  and  energetic  young 
people,  the  very  people  that  are  so  greatly  needed 
in.  the  country  at  this  time.  Those  who  remain 
are  often  the  less  ambitious  and  capable  who 
would  go  if  they  had  the  courage  and  the  chance. 


78  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

The  results  of  all  these  changes  are  seen  in 
a  hundred  thousand  rural  communities  all  over 
the  land.  The  people  in  the  country  today  lack 
energy  and  push  and  initiative.  I  have  found 
country  towns  that  were  as  dead  as  a  graveyard. 
Everybody  seems  to  have  gone  to  sleep.  Nobody 
seems  to  care  a  whit  for  the  common  welfare. 
How  such  people  keep  out  of  mischief  is  a  mys- 
tery to  me.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  young  peo- 
ple find  mischief  and  plenty  of  it.  I  was  born  on 
a  farm  in  New  Jersey  and  grew  up  in  Philadel- 
phia. I  have  been  pastor  in  a  country  village  and 
I  have  been  pastor  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
and  Lincoln.  And  I  say  deliberately  that  I  had 
rather  bring  up  a  family  of  children  in  the  large 
city  than  in  the  average  cross  roads  village. 

Again,  the  results  of  the  changes  are  seen  in 
hundreds  of  country  churches  all  over  the  land. 
The  churches  are  small  and  the  workers  are  few. 
There  are  churches  with  seventy-five  members 
that  can  not  muster  half  a  dozen  reliable  men. 
Were  it  not  for  the  good  women  many  of  these 
churches  would  die  within  a  year.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  many  of  the  country  churches  are  largely 
manned  by  women.  There  are  country  churches, 
plenty  of  them,  in  which  all  of  the  available  men 
are  deacons  and  all  of  the  working  men  are  wo- 
men. At  best  there  is  a  sad  lack  of  male  mem- 
bers and  of  these  too  few  can  be  counted  upon 
to  do  effective  church  work.  Many  of  these 
churches  are  living  at  a  poor  dying  rate;  some  of 
them  are  as  dead  as  they  ever  will  be.  The  men 
in  the  country  towns  in  many  parts  of  our  coun- 
try have  largely  ceased  to  attend  church.  They 
have  caught  the  city  fever  and  it  has  affected  their 
church  going. 

The  country  churches  today  find  it  harder  and 
ever  harder  to  secure  suitable  pastors.  Several 
causes  have  combined  and  contributed  to  turn 
young  men  aAvay  from  the  country  pastorate. 
One  is  the  inadequate  support  that  is  offered  the 
country   pastor.     Young   men   leaving   the   Semi- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  79 

nary  are  somewhat  reluctant  to  enter  the  pastor- 
ate of  the  country  church.  And  sometimes  it 
must  be  confessed  there  are  reasons  for  this  re- 
luctance. The  young  man  knows  that  in  the 
country  his  salary  will  be  small  at  the  best;  if 
the  Lord  will  keep  him  humble  the  people  can 
keep  him  poor.  He  needs  books  and  current 
literature,  especially  during  the  early  years  of 
his  ministry.  If  he  goes  without  books  and 
magazines  he  misses  the  intellectual  quickening 
and  broadening  of  vision  that  the  age  demands. 
Besides  his  members  are  usually  widely  scattered. 
He  often  has  two  or  three  preaching  stations  at  a 
distance.  A  vast  amount  of  time  must  be  spent 
on  the  road.  A  funeral  will  sometimes  con- 
sume a  whole  day.  His  study  is  neglected  and 
he  ceases  to  advance.  Thus  to  enter  a  country 
pastorate  at  the  beginning  often  means  to  doom 
oneself  for  life.  There  was  once  a  country  pastor 
that  received  the  munificent  salary  of  $500  a  year. 
Out  of  this  sum  he  paid  house  rent  and  supported 
a  wife  and  child.  By  careful  management  a  few 
dollars  were  saved  for  books  and  magazines.  But 
a  good  deacon  one  day  insinuated  that  if  the  pas- 
tor had  so  much  money  to  spend  for  books  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  preach  on  a  smaller 
salary.  That  particular  deacon  is  dead  now,  but 
members  of  his  tribe  remain. 

There  is  one  other  factor  which  complicates 
the  problem,  and  that  is  the  number  of  churches 
in  a  rural  community.  There  are  many  commu- 
nities east  and  west  that  are  sadly  overchurched. 
I  know  a  town  of  twenty-two  hundred  people  with 
thirteen  churches.  I  know  another  town  of 
twenty-eight  hundred  people  and  eighteen 
churches.  What  is  the  result?  All  the  churches 
are.  weak  and  struggling;  half  of  them  are  pastor- 
less  much  of  the  time.  The  struggle  for  existence 
is  so  keen  that  no  church  has  any  time  or  dispo- 
sition to  co-operate  with  its  neighbors  in  commu- 
nity betterment.  No  wonder  that  earnest  young 
men    with    red   rich   blood    and   a   life   to    invest 


SO  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

should  give  such  fields  a  wide  berth.  It  is  sim- 
ply a  waste  of  time  for  eighteen  trained  and  de- 
veloped pastors  to  spend  their  time  with  eigh- 
teen churches  in  a  town  of  twenty-eight  hundred 
people.  All  over  the  land  we  hear  the  complaint 
that  men  have  dropped  out  of  the  churches  and 
are  not  found  in  the  congregations.  This  is  the 
condition  in  the  cities  and  it  is  even  more 
markedly  so  in  the  country.  In  many  country 
towns  the  proportion  of  church  going  men  is 
pitifully  small,  and  young  men  are  especially  con- 
spicuous by  their  absence.  But  after  all  I  do  not 
see  how  the  men  can  be  so  severely  censured. 
The  principal  of  the  high  school  receives  from 
$800  to  $1500  salary,  while  the  pastor  of  the 
church  receives  from  $3  00  to  $600  salary.  Do  you 
wonder  that  many  of  the  preachers  are  weak  and 
untrained  men?  Do  you  wonder  that  many  of 
the  men  do  not  derive  much  edification  from  the 
preaching? 

I  realize  fully  that  I  am  describing  conditions 
in  the  east,  the  north  and  the  central  west.  But 
the  significant  thing  is  this  that  the  drift  is  mov- 
ing southward  and  westward,  and  in  a  few  years 
the  same  conditions  may  be  found  here  that  are 
found  elsewhere.  And  so  I  plead  with  you  to 
know  what  causes  are  at  work  in  other  parts  of 
the  land,  and  to  forestall  them  here  and  prevent 
the  same  results. 

Our  inquiry  thus  far  has  shown  us  one  thing 
at  least.  The  problem  of  the  country  church  is 
not  by  any  means  a  simple  problem;  it  is  a  very 
complex  problem,  with  many  factors  and  ele- 
ments; in  truth  it  is  a  part  of  the  whole  social 
problem  of  our  day.  The  churches  are  weak  and 
moribund,  for  one  reason  because  the  rural  popu- 
lation is  decreasing;  the  rural  population  is  de- 
creasing from  several  causes:  young  and  ener- 
getic young  people  are  leaving  the  country  be- 
cause there  is  nothing  to  keep  them  in  the  coun- 
try and  they  are  attracted  by  the  city.  The 
rural  population  is  decreasing  because  the  owner- 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  81 

ship  of  the  farm  is  more  and  more  passing  into 
a  few  hands.  The  shifting  of  population  today  is 
a  part  of  the  process  of  change  and  readjustment 
that  is  going  on  all  over  the  world.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  country  church  is  an  economic  problem. 
It  is  a  social  problem.  It  is  a  spiritual  problem. 
The  economic  base  of  the  rural  community  has 
changed,  and  this  means  a  change  in  the  entire 
social  life:  and  this  affects  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
community. 

I  am  aware  that  the  picture  thus  far  drawn  is 
somewhat  dark.  But  I  am  ready  to  maintain  that 
in  its  main  outline  it  is  a  truthful  picture.  The 
first  thing  is  for  us  to  know  the  problem  before  us, 
to  see  it  in  all  its  details  with  unblinking  eyes, 
and  to  realize  what  are  the  features  that  enter 
into  both  the  problem  and  its  solution.  At  any 
rate  there  can  be  no  solution  of  any  indefinite  and 
unclear  problem.  There  are  many  ways  of  put- 
ting out  a  fire,  but  shutting  your  eyes  is  not  one 
of  them.  We  face  this  problem  in  confidence  and 
hope  for  the  Christian  knows  no  insoluble  prob- 
lems, to  him  there  are  no  impossible  tasks- 
Rather  every  problem  is  simply  a  new  opportuni- 
ty. 

II.     The  Factors  in  the  Solution. 

The  problem  of  the  country  church  being  a 
complex  problem  can  never  be  solved  by  any  one 
factor  alone.  One  man  would  tell  us  that  the 
problem  of  the  country  church  is  a  very  simple 
one — it  is  the  problem  of  Christian  evangelism. 
Give  us  earnest  evangelistic  pastors  in  all  of  these 
churches,  let  them  be  paid  a  fair  salary  and  be 
supported  by  a  loyal  and  Spirit-filled  membership, 
and  the  problem  will  be  solved.  Yes,  and  if  the 
sky  should  fall  we  might  all  catch  larks.  How  to 
to  secure  these  earnest  and  evangelistic  pastors 
for  these  churches;  how  to  obtain  for  them  an 
adequate  support;  how  to  develop  a  loyal  and 
spiritual  church  membership,  is  the  very  problem 
we  have  to  solve.     We  cannot  have  these  earnest 


82  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

and  devoted  young  men  for  the  ministry  unless 
the  country  churches  can  breed  such  men.  And 
we  could  not  keep  these  devoted  and  warm- 
hearted men  in  the  country  pastorates  unless  we 
have  churches  to  hold  them  and  they  have  people 
to  work  with.  The  primary  problem  we  thus  see 
is  to  have  people  in  the  country  with  whom  the 
pastors  can  work;  the  primary  problem  is  the  pre- 
paring of  brave  and  devoted  men  for  country  pas- 
torates. By  all  means  let  us  emphasize  the  im- 
portance of  devoted  and  evangelistic  pastors  in  the 
country  churches.  But  let  us  not  fail  to  see  that 
there  are  certain  conditions  which  will  make  this 
consummation  possible. 

Again:  The  population  of  the  rural  districts  is 
changing,  and  the  population  is  decreasing.  Two 
things  we  must  have  as  conditions  making  pos- 
sible a  strong  and  flourishing  country  church.  We 
must  have  an  increasing  population;  and  we  must 
have  an  intelligent  and  progressive  class  of  peo- 
ple. The  quality  of  the  mass,  we  have  learned, 
depends  upon  the  quality  of  its  constituents.  We 
cannot  have  a  golden  society  out  of  people  with 
leaden  instincts.  Israel  of  old  learned  that  it  is 
not  easy  to  make  good  bricks  without  straw.  The 
country  church  is  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  commu- 
nity and  it  rises  or  falls  with  the  rise  or  fall  of 
the  community  itself.  To  have  an  intelligent, 
a  progressive  and  active  membership  in  the 
country  churches  we  must  have  an  intelligent, 
progressive  and  active  people  in  the  community. 
The  way  to  have  a  better  class  of  people  for  the 
country  churches  is  to  have  a  better  class  of  peo- 
ple in  the  rural  community.  To  illustrate  the 
meaning  of  this  let  us  suppose  a  case:  Suppose 
that  in  some  community  the  Christian  people  are 
better  farmers  than  the  non-Christian;  that  is, 
they  use  more  intelligent  and  economic  methods 
in  working  the  soil;  they  secure  larger  crops  than 
non-Christian  farmers  and  make  more  money  in 
the  course  of  years.  There  is  no  danger  what- 
ever  of   the   Christians   leaving   the  community; 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  83 

there  is  no  danger  that  either  a  .non-Christian  or 
a  foreign  element  will  populate  that  community; 
and  there  is  no  danger  further  that  the  country 
church  in  that  community  will  decline.  But  sup- 
pose on  the  other  hand  that  non-Christian  and 
foreign  people  are  better  farmers  than  the  Christ- 
ians, they  use  the  soil  better  and  obtain  a  larger 
yield  per  acre.  In  that  case  it  is  certain  that  in 
the  course  of  years  the  non-Christian  farmers 
will  drive  out  the  Christian  farmers.  And  as  a 
matter  of  course  the  country  church  will  wane  and 
die.  Suppose  further  that  in  certain  districts 
the  farmers  are  careless,  and  unintelligent,  rob- 
bing the  soil,  always  taking  from  it  and  giving 
nothing  back.  It  is  certain  that  the  land  will 
lose  its  fertility,  the  population  will  decline  in 
quality  and  numbers.  And  this  very  process,  as 
you  know,  is  going  on  in  a  hundred  communities 
east  and  west.  The  old  American  and  Protestant 
families  have  left  the  farms,  because  they  were 
poor  farmers;  they  had  a  false  estimate  of  wealth; 
and  so  they  left  the  farms.  And  Canadians  -and 
Italians  are  taking  up  these  abandoned  farms 
and  are  working  them  at  a  good  profit.  You  know 
the  result  so  far  as  the  country  is  concerned. 

To  have  the  people  we  need  for  our  churches 
we  must  have  the  kind  of  people  we  want  in  the 
community.  To  have  an  active,  progressive  and 
Protestant  people  for  our  country  churches  we 
must  have  an  active  progressive  and  Protestant 
people  in  our  rural  communities.  You  say  that  I 
am  reasoning  in  a  circle:  not  at  all,  as  you  will 
see^  in  a  moment.  The  churches  we  already  have 
must  create  the  kind  of  people  we  want  in  our 
communities  for  our  country  churches.  The  prob- 
lem of  the  country  church  is  an  economic  prob- 
lem, a  social  and  a  spiritual  problem.  Since  this 
is  so,  our  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  rural  community 
must  be  economic,  social  and  spiritual. 

We  must  in  some  way  inspire  our  country  peo- 
ple to  become  better  farmers.  We  must  have  a 
more    intelligent    farming    population;    we    must 


84  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

have  a  more  moral  farming  population  so  far  as 
the  treatment  of  the  soil  is  concerned;  we  must 
teach  the  farmers  how  to  make  the  most  out  of 
the  soil  not  for  today  only,  but  for  the  next 
generation  as  well.  My  friend  Mr.  Henry  Wallace 
has  declared  that  the  people  of  this  country  are 
"soil  robbers,"  and  the  charge  is  none  too  severe. 
The  only  apology  the  people  can  offer  is  that  they 
have  sinned  unconsciously  and  in  ignorance.  The 
times  of  ignorance  God  may  wink  at,  but  now  He 
commandeth  us  to  repent  and  change  our  ways. 
The  people  of  this  country  have  been  obsessed 
with  a  mad  desire  to  make  money;  if  they  suc- 
ceeded in  this  they  were  regarded  as  successful  in 
life.  Under  the  sway  of  this  passion  this  is  what 
we  find:  The  people  of  the  past  generations  have 
abused  and  robbed  the  soil;  year  after  year  they 
have  cropped  it  close,  ever  taking  away  from  the 
soil  and  seldom  putting  anything  back:  the  farm- 
ers of  yesterday  have  mortgaged  the  land  of  the 
life  of  tomorrow.  In  many  sections  of  our  coun- 
try the  productive  power  of  the  soil  is  steadily 
decreasing  at  an  alarming  rate.  It  is  needless 
here  to  quote  authorities  and  figures;  those  who 
are  interested  in- this  question  will  find  some  illu- 
minating material  in  the  published  proceedings 
of  the  White  House  Conference  of  Governors  in 
1908.  This  means  that  the  rural  population  must 
diminish  in  number  and  decrease  in  quality  if 
this  tendency  is  not  checked.  The  question  of  the 
fair  and  honest  use  of  the  soil  concerns  all  of  our 
people.  It  vitally  concerns  the  country  church. 
If  this  question  does  not  concern  us  then  nothing 
concerns  us.  I  realize  fully  that  the  country 
church  cannot  meet  and  solve  their  problem  alone. 
The  state  has  a  vital  interest  in  the  things  that 
directly  affect  the  life  of  the  people.  We  must 
see  to  it  therefore  that  the  state  knows  its  work 
and  then  sets  about  work  in  an  intelligent  and  ef- 
fective way.  The  time  is  coming  when  such  ques- 
tions as  these  will  be  the  first  questions  considered 
in  our  halls  of  legislation.      Some  day  in  the  good 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  8  5 

future — we  hope  it  may  not  be  for  distant— we 
will  stop  sending  little  politicians  to  our  legis- 
latures and  will  send  citizens  who  are  trained  to 
take  a  broad  view  of  the  general  welfare. 

The  state  agricultural  college  can  do  much  in 
the  behalf  of  a  better  farming  population.  Some- 
thing has  been  done  in  the  past;  more  is  being 
attempted  to  day.  But  at  best  only  a  beginning 
has  been  made.  Now  the  results  gained  by  ex- 
pert study  must  be  given  to  the  people. 

But  after  all  a  larger  part  of  this  work  must  be 
done  by  the  church  itself.  The  country  church 
must  become  a  centre  of  intellectual  quickening 
for  the  whole  community.  It  must  awaken  in  the 
people  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  life  of  the 
community.  How  far  the  country  churches  have 
been  centres  of  intellectual  quickening  and  com- 
munity life  I  hardly  dare  to  discuss.  Here  and 
there  we  may  find  such  a  church;  but  many 
churches  count  for  little  so  far  as  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  community  is  concerned.  A  Baptist 
church,  to  limit  ourselves,  should  be  a  company  of 
the  most  alert,  open  eyed,  intelligent  and  pro- 
gressive people  in  the  community.  I  can  under- 
stand how  a  Baptist  can  be  an  insurgent,  but  I 
cannot  think  of  the  combination  as  a  Baptist 
stand-patter.  Yet  there  are  country  churches — 
rumor  says  there  are  city  churches  also — that  are 
about  the  dullest,  sleepiest,  least  progressive,  least 
inspiring  places  in  the  community.  Xo  wonder 
so  many  people  always  associate  a  sermon  with 
sleep.  Dullness  is  the  unpardonable  sin  of  the 
ministry.  There  are  Baptist  preachers  standing 
in  Baptist  pulpits  who  are  as  dead  now  as  they 
ever  can  be.  Xo  wonder  the  young  people  pass 
the  country  church  and  look  elsewhere  for  mental 
life.  This  is  what  I  mean  on  this  point:  the 
country  church  must  become  a  community  centre 
of  intellectual  quickening.  It  must  do  something 
to  inspire  in  the  people  a  more  intelligent  interest 
in  the  work  they  have  to  do  in  the  world. 

The  country  church  has  a  large  mission  to  ful- 


86  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

fil  in  creating  community  ideals.  "The  thoughts 
men  had,"  said  Carlyle,  "were  the  parents  of  the 
things  men  did.  Their  feelings  were  the  parents 
of  their  thoughts."  "That  which  gives  life  its 
keynote,"  says  a  thoughtful  writer,  "  is  not  what 
men  think  good  but  what  they  think  best."  "Let 
me  make  the  songs  of  people  and  I  care  not  who 
makes  the  laws."  What  the  country  community 
needs  just  now  is  a  new  and  attractive  community 
ideal.  Many  communities  have  no  community 
ideal  at  all;  and  so  they  have  no  community 
spirit.  There  is  nothing  about  the  community 
to  awaken  in  any  young  soul  an  enthusiastic  love 
for  the  place.  Many  country  communities,  so  the 
young  people  think,  are  very  good  places  to  go 
from.  In  some  way  this  attitude  must  be  changed 
and  we  must  teach  the  people  to  love  their  com- 
munity. We  need  to  develop  a  civic  and  com- 
munity patriotism,  in  the  rank  and  file  of  our 
people.  The  Jew  of  old  loved  Jerusalem  above  his 
chief  joy;  our  people  must  learn  to  love  their 
community  and  to  live  for  its  welfare.  The  cre- 
ation of  a  town  spirit  and  a  community  ideal  is 
an  important  part  of  the  church's  work.  A 
church  that  fails  here  is  failing  in  a  large  part 
of  its  mission.  I  do  not  wonder  much  that  young 
people  with  a  trace  of  idealism  and  an  ounce  of 
spunk — and  all  young  people  have  idealism  and 
spunk  till  they  are  frozen  out  of  them — drop  out 
of  some  churches  and  leave  the  country  town. 

Another  thing;  the  country  church  must  teach 
the  people  the  simple  ethics  of  the  good  life. 
"Thou  shalt  not  steal;"  that  commandment  like 
all  the  commandments  is  exceeding  broad.  I  need 
not  take  the  time  showing  you  the  modern  ways 
of  stealing;  one  man  may  steal  by  robbing  a  store; 
and  another  may  steal  by  a  monopoly  price.  One 
man  may  be  a  robber  by  being  a  porch-climber; 
and  another  may  be  a  robber  by  selling  an  adul- 
terated food.  One  man  may  rob  a  state  by  loot- 
ing its  treasury  vaults;  and  another  may  rob  a 
people  by  robbing  the  soil.      "Thou  shalt  love  thy 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  87 

neighbor  as  thyself."  This  commandment  is  al- 
so exceeding  broad.  We  may  love  our  neighbors 
by  keeping  our  chickens  in  our  own  garden.  We 
may  love  our  neighbors  by  seeking  the  salvation 
of  his  soul.  We  may  love  our  neighbors  by  keep- 
ing the  weeds  trimmed  in  our  fence  corners.  And 
we  may  love  our  neighbors  by  providing  that  those 
who  come  after  us  shall  have  a  good  soil  to  culti- 
vate. Many  people  have  an  idea  that  the  com- 
mandments of  God  have  little  to  do  with  com- 
mon everyday  things.  They  do  not  make  the  con- 
nection between  the  commandment  and  their  daily 
actions. 

Some  people  I  realize  will  object  in  whole  or  in 
part  to  what  I  am  saying  here.  All  this  is  secular 
work  they  say,  and  Christianity  is  a  spiritual  re- 
ligion. Years  ago  Robert  South  preached  several 
great  sermons  in  the  Fatal  Imposture  and  Farce  of 
Words.  This  word  "spiritual"  is  a  fog-bank  to 
most  people  and  they  commit  a  fatal  imposture 
upon  themselves  by  its  use.  Most  people  I  fear 
hardly  know  what  spiritual  means,  but  they  Rave 
an  idea  that  somehow  it  always  means  an  indif- 
ference to  real  and  practical  matters.  God  is 
spirit,  and  that  means  that  God  is  Reason,  Con- 
science, Purpose.  Man  is  spirit  because  he  is  a 
being  with  reason,  conscience  and  will.  To  be 
spiritual  means  to  live  by  reason,  to  live  by  con- 
science, to  live  for  a  purpose.  Spirituality  you 
see  denotes  an  attitude  of  soul,  a  frame  of  mind, 
a  purpose  in  life.  One  may  be  wholly  unspiritual 
reading  the  Bible  and  preaching  sermons;  and 
another  may  be  wholly  spiritual  plowing  a  field, 
working  for  a  better  community  and  teaching  peo- 
ple how  to  live  a  full  and  worthy  human  life. 

In  a  large  sense  the  question  if  the  country 
church  is  the  question  of  a  trained  and  qualified 
leadership.  Thus  far  we  have  not  had  a  generation 
of  men  trained  for  the  leadership  of  the  country 
churches.  Some  of  the  men  in  the  pastorate  in 
city  and  country  are  not  trained  for  leadership 
anywhere.     The  fact  that  a  man  can  take  a  text 


8  8  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

and  keep  talking  for  half  an  hour  may  be  proof 
presumptive  that  he  is  called  to  the  ministry;  and 
then  it  may  not  mean  that  he  is  called  to  that 
work.  The  fact  that  a  man  can  preach  with 
acceptance  as  an  evangelist  is  no  proof  positive 
that  he  is  a  good  man  to  become  the  settled  pastor 
of  a  church.  To  become  the  settled  pastor  one 
must  preach  about  104  new  sermons  every  year; 
he  must  be  the  leader  of  the  church;  and  he 
should  lead  the  people  in  various  kinds  of  Social 
Service.  Thus  far  we  have  had  men  trained  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  some  of  this  train- 
ing has  been  most  excellent.  No  one  honors  the 
theological  seminary  more  than  I;  and  I  con- 
fess that  I  have  little  patience  with  the  whole- 
sale condemnation  of  the  seminaries.  But  after 
all  we  must  admit  that  the  Theological  Semina- 
ries in  the  past  have  not  trained  men  for  the  pas- 
torate of  country  churches.  Nay,  in  many  cases 
the  Seminaries  have  trained  men  away  from  these 
churches.  The  training  they  have  received  is 
largely  training  for  the  city  churches,  and  the 
students  who  show  an  aptitude  are  usually  draft- 
ed off  for  the  city  pulpits.  Too  often  only  the 
"left  overs"  from  the  Seminary  are  sent  into  the 
country.  Even  if  the  country  churches  attracted 
the  ablest  men  of  the  seminaries  the  problem 
would  not  be  solved.  The  pastor  of  the  city 
church  today  requires  a  special  training  for  work 
in  a  city  and  the  pastor  of  the  country  church  to- 
day no  less  requires  this  special  vocational  train- 
ing. I  wish  I  could  emphasize  this  ten  fold:  I 
wish  I  could  bring  this  truth  home  to  all  of  our 
people.  The  time  has  gone  by  forever  when  "any 
old  thing"  will  do  as  pastor  of  a  country  church. 
I  am  ready  to  maintain  that  the  need  of  a  spe- 
cially trained  ministry  is  greater  in  the  country 
than  in  the  city.  One  of  the  first  steps  in  the  so- 
lution of  the  problem  is  for  the  church  to  pre- 
pare trained  men  for  country  pastorates.  If  the 
present  Theological  Seminaries  cannot  do  this 
work,  if  they  will  not;  we  must  build  and  equip  a 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  89 

Seminary  that  will  do  it.  The  churches  must 
breed  a  generation  of  men  who  will  regard  the 
pastorate  of  a  country  church  as  a  career  worth 
while.  And  we  must  have  a  new  standard  of 
ministerial  values  and  successes.  We  must  hon- 
or the  pastors  of  the  country  churches  as  we  do 
not  honor  them  today.  Take  the  programs  of 
our  state  and  national  conventions,  and  country 
pastors  are  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  In 
conventions  their  voices,  are  seldom  .  heard.  All 
this  creates  an  atmosphere  and  makes  a  stand- 
ard that  influences  all.  I  know  these  country  pas- 
tors and  I  honor  them  for  their  warm  hearts  and 
brave  struggles.  I  know  what  sacrifices  many  of 
them  are  making  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  I  know 
how  they  are  engaged  in  the  hard  and  almost 
hopeless  effort  of  making  bricks  without  straw. 
And  I  know  also  how  many  of  them  feel  their 
sad  lack  of  special  preparation  for  their  work  and 
how  gladly  they  would  welcome  any  help  that 
would  give  them  a  better  equipment.  I  believe 
we  owe  these  men  high  honor;  and  I  believe  we 
should  give  them  the  help  they  need.  This  com- 
mon standard  affects  the  country  pastor;  and  as 
he  wants  to  do  and  be  something  he  sighs  for  a 
city  pastorate.  He  looks  away  to  the  city  and 
sees  this,  brother  and  that  preaching  to  a  large 
congregation  and  receiving  a  fat  salary;  his  ser- 
mons are  often  quoted  in  the  papers  and  he  seems 
to  be  a  great  city  leader.  Perhaps  he  is;  and  then 
perhaps  he  is  not.  But  this  is  the  fact  none  the 
less  that  the  average  city  pastor  is  little  else  than 
a  hewer  of  wood  and  a  drawer  of  water.  Few  men 
in  city  pastorates  hold  a  very  large  place  in  the 
city  and  wield  a  large  influence.  I  have  seen 
both;  I  have  been  both,  and  I  know  whereof  I 
speak.  Does  a  man  want  a  field  large  enough  for 
any  man?  Does  he  want  a  place  of  commanding 
influence?  Does  he  want  to  touch  and  mould  life 
at  its  very  beginning?  Does  he  want  to  be  the 
first  man  in  the  community?  Does  he  rebel  at  the 
prospect  of  being  unknown  and  unnoticed?  Then 


90  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

let  him  avoid  the  city  church  and  go  to  the 
country.  Does  a  man  want  a  field  worth  while? 
Does  he  want  to  serve  with  the  feeling  that  he  is 
doing  something  in  the  world?  Does  he  want  to 
live  with  the  consciousness  that  his  influence  is 
deep  and  lasting?  Then  let  him  regard  the  coun- 
try pastorate  as  a  career  worthy  of  any  man. 

The  Things  to  Be  Done. 

The  problem  of  the  country  church  is  not  by 
any  means  a  simple  one  and  it  cannot  be  solved 
by  any  one  line  of  effort.  More  than  that,  there 
is  no  easy  panacea  that  will  work  itself  and  is 
guaranteed  to  cure  all  our  troubles  without  any 
service  on  the  part  of  any  one.  The  problem  of 
the  Country  Church  means  work,  hard,  patient, 
persistent  work.  But  if  we  are  working  in  line 
with  the  will  of  God  we  know  that  our  labor 
shall  be  abundantly  fruitful.  We  must  find  the 
causes,  economic,  social,  political,  and  religious 
and  deal  with  these.  We  must  have  a  practical, 
constructive  and  Christian  program  of  effort.  We 
must  touch  life  on  all  sides  and  must  deal  with 
the  community  as  a  whole.  We  must  secure  the 
co-operation  of  every  agency  of  human  and  social 
uplift.  Several  things  that  lie  along  the  line  of 
effort  may  be  mentioned. 

I.  We  must  create  a  better  community  life. 
To  this  end  we  must  first  of  all  know  the  com- 
munity. Have  a  community  survey  and  know 
the  condition  and  needs.  Then  we  will  be  in  a 
position  to  work  intelligently  and  fruitfully.  We 
talk  about  slums,  and  many  people  suppose  they 
are  found  only  in  a  few  great  cities.  But  I  have 
found  slums  as  dismal  and  as  degrading  in  a 
small  town  as  in  New  York  or  Philadelphia.  The 
evil  of  a  slum  is  not  in  its  size  but  in  the  very 
thing  itself.  In  many  of  our  towns  we  have 
slums  with  over-crowding,  disease,  immorality 
and  all  ungodliness.  Know  the  facts  and  then 
unite  the  people  of  good  will  in  behalf  of  com- 
munity betterment. 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  91 

II.  We  must  make  the  community  more  at- 
tractive. What  is  the  first  thing  that  strikes  you 
as  you  come  into  many  of  our  American  towns?  It 
is  the  dirt,  the  disorder,  the  ill  kept  streets,  the 
unsightly  alleys.  If  cleanliness  is  next  akin  to 
Godliness  many  of  our  towns  are  dreadfully  un- 
godly, for  they  are  dreadfully  unclean.  Have  a 
town  "clean  up  day,"  and  keep  it  up  all  the  year. 
The  church  is  a  good  place  to  begin  in  this  clean- 
up campaign.  I  have  seen  country  churches  that 
were  most  unattractive;  the  windows  were  dirty, 
the  fences  were  broken,  the  yard  had  a  fine  crop 
of  tin  cans,  the  grass  was  uncut,  ugly  weeds  were 
everywhere.  No  wonder  young  people  shunned 
the  church.  The  church  should  set  a  standard, 
and  should  have  the  cleanest,  neatest,  most  at- 
tractive   property   in    the    community. 

III.  We  must  direct  the  recreation  of  the  com- 
munity. Play  is  natural  to  the  child,  and  play  is 
necessary.  We  have  allowed  recreation  to  become 
commercialized  in  this  land,  and  as  a  consequence 
it  often  panders  to  the  worst  instincts  in  man. 
Recreation  has  become  dissipation.  Young  peo- 
ple must  have  recreation,  and  they  will  have  it. 
If  they  cannot  have  it  under  right  conditions  they 
will  have  it  under  wrong  conditions.  Th*e  Coun- 
try Church  can  determine  in  large  part  which  it 
shall  be. 

Every  community  should  have  a  wise  and  con- 
structive program  of  community  recreation. 
Have  a  "Community  Picnic"  and  get  all  the  folks 
together.  Every  community  has  some  interesting 
bit  of  history.  Have  a  Pageant  and  protray  this 
history.  Get  the  boys  interested  in  clean  sport. 
The  church  can  do  many  things  that  will  make 
life  more  interesting  and  the  community  more  at- 
tractive. 

IV.  We  must  make  the  church  a  community 
centre.  The  time  was  when  the  church  was  the 
centre  of  everything  in  the  community:  it  was 
newspaper,  lecture  course,  it  was  the  centre  of 
intellectual  and  social  life.      I  cannot  go  into  de- 


9  2  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

tail,  but  a  number  of  things  may  be  named.  Have 
a  "Nature  Club"and  study  the  flowers,  the  birds, 
the  trees,  the  stars.  Jesus  quoted  the  book  of  na- 
ture more  frequently  than  he  quoted  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  flowers  and  birds  have  just  as  many 
lessons  to  teach  us  in  North  Carolina  as  in  Old 
Judea.  The  Patriarch  of  Uz  knew  the  stars  by 
name.  The  Psalmist  saw  God's  glory  in  the 
heavens  and  read  God's  handiwork  in  the  firma- 
ment. There  are  just  as  many  stars  over  your 
head  as  shined  over  the  head  of  David  and  Job. 
Study  the  stars;  know  them  by  name;  pick  out 
the  great  constellations;  teach  the  boys  and  girls 
that  the  place  where  they  are  standing  is  just  as 
full  of  glory  and  of  God  as  any  place  in  the  wide 
world.  Organize  a  singing  school  or  a  spelling 
bee.  Have  a  Dramatic  Club  and  get  the  young 
people  interested.  It  will  appeal  to  the  romantic 
in  human  nature,  and  it  will  destroy  the  taste  for 
many  of  the  cheap  and  nasty  shows  that  come  to 
our  towns.  Have  a  course  of  lectures  during  the 
winter,  not  to  make  money,  but  as  the  church's 
contribution  to  the  community's  life.  Have  a 
"Debating  Club"  and  discuss  some  of  the  vital 
topics  of  the  day.  "You  need  not  fear  to  strike 
a  ligh£"  Lowell  reminds  us,  "for  the  universe  is 
fire  proof."  Wherever  possible  there  should  be  a 
"Community  Centre"  as  a  part  of  the  church 
equipment.  Some  people  may  object — whether 
wisely  or  hot  we  need  not  discuss,  to  holding  these 
things  in  the  church  building.  But  anything  that 
will  help  people  has  a  rightful  place  in  some  part 
of  a  church.  It  is  better,  however,  to  have  the 
Social  Centre  adjoining  the  church.  We  must  link 
all  life  with  the  church,  and  we  must  infuse  the 
religious  spirit  into  all  life.  Religion  is  misdi- 
rected if  it  is  not  teaching  us  to  be  happier  peo- 
ple, better  neighbors;  religion  is  missing  the  mark 
if  it  is  not  sweetening  the  play  of  children  and  is 
not  making  us  love  our  community. 

The  church  may  well  have  a  community  library 
and    a    magazine    club.     Let    us   not    forget   that 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  9  3 

Christianity  has  a  mission  to  the  mind  as  well  as 
to  the  heart.  We  are  to  love  God  with  all  our 
heart  and  with  all  our  mind.  The  church  that 
does  not  touch  and  quicken  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  community  is  neglecting  a  vital  part  of  its 
mission. 

Another  thing:  the  country  church  must  know 
its  parish  and  must  serve  it  in  every  possible  way. 
The  church  should  establish  some  points  of  con- 
tact with  every  family  in  its  neighborhood.  It 
should  encourage  study  and  family  worship.  Much 
can  be  done  by  having  every  family  subscribe  for 
a  religious  paper.  Much  can  be  done  by  promot- 
ing the  circulation  and  use  of  good  literature.  I 
hope  to  see  the  time  when  every  church  will  have 
a  community  library  and  will  have  regular  read- 
ers' courses  in  the  Bible,  in  church  history,  in  mis- 
sions, in  Social  Study  and  current  questions.  Be- 
yond all  this  every  church  should  have  some  defi- 
nite and  practical  plans  for  community  evange- 
lism. Where  any  number  of  people  are  remote 
from  a  church  have  them  maintain  a  regular  pray- 
er meeting  with  stated  preaching  services.  I 
realize  fully  that  the  pastor  cannot  do  all  of  this 
work.  But  this  is  the  work  the  deacons  should 
do.  Deacons  in  the  early  church  were  not  mere 
figure-heads  and  office  "holders,"  they  were  ac- 
tive workers  and  effective  preachers.  The  church 
must  develop  from  within  its  membership  the 
workers  who  are  needed  for  all  of  its  service. 

V.  WTe  must  redirect  the  educational  system. 
The  public  school  system  is  one  of  the  great 
achievements  of  our  American  civilization.  It  has 
done  much  in  the  past  to  prepare  the  children  for 
citizenship  and  to  make  democracy  possible.  But 
the  public  school  system,  it  is  confessed  by  all, 
needs  to  be  changed  at  some  points.  The  first 
thing  is  this:  We  must  improve  the  rural  schools. 

In  some  parts  of  our  land  the  rural  schools  are 
very  inadequately  supported  and  poorly  conduct- 
ed. In  some  sections  the  term  of  school  is  too 
short.     In  many  states  a  larger  proportion  of  these 


9  4  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

schools  have  very  few  pupils.  All  this  means  a 
very  inadequate  educational  equipment  for  life. 
No  wonder  many  parents  leave  the  country  and 
crowd  into  the  towns  that  their  children  may 
have  better  educational  advantages.  The  most 
immediate  and  practical  thing  is  a  central  school 
for  a  larger  section.  This  will  mean  better  build- 
ings, more  and  better  teachers  and  more  courses 
of  study.  Above  all  it  will  make  possible  the  vo- 
cational training  that  is  greatly  needed  in  our 
land.  This  will  make  it  possible  for  the  schools 
to  become  more  efficient,  to  touch  life  on  all  sides, 
to  give  instruction  in  technical  subjects,  and  to 
interest  the  children  in  better  farming.  Great 
advances  are  being  made  in  this  direction;  but 
much  yet  remains  to  be  done. 

VI.  We  must  create  a  new  type  of  country 
life.  Several  things  are  fundamental  here.  First 
of  all  we  must  teach  a  new  love  for  the  soil.  We 
must  make  people  see  that  the  soil  is  God's  gift  to 
His  children;  and  in  the  last  analysis  it  is  the 
means  through  which  He  gives  them  daily  bread. 
To  misuse  the  soil,  to  waste  its  resources,  to  im- 
poverish it,  is  a  great  sin  against  God  and  a  great 
wrong  against  the  nation.  Then  we  must  inter- 
est the  young  people  in  farm  life  by  showing  that 
farmfng  offers  a  field  for  talents.  He  is  a  bene- 
factor of  the  race  who  makes  two  blades  of  grass 
grow  where  before  there  was  one.  He  is  a  much 
greater  benefactor  who  teaches  the  people  to 
raise  seventy  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  where 
before  they  were  raising  but  thirty.  To  this  end 
the  church  should  enlist  its  young  people  in  corn 
growing  contests.  Some  Sunday  Schools  display 
their  athletic  trophies  with  just  pride.  The  time 
is  coming  when  our  Sunday  Schools  will  display 
their  corn  growing  trophies  with  religious  inter- 
est. The  church  may  well  and  wisely  offer  its 
building  for  a  Farmers'  Institute,  or  for  a  Grange 
meeting.  The  great  principle  behind  it  all  is  this: 
That  religion  is  a  matter  of  life;  and  all  life 
should  be  religious.     We  must  link  our  religion 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  9  5 

and  our  daily  life.  The  church  that  is  separating 
religion  from  life  is  off  the  track;  the  church  that 
is  hallowing  life  is  the  church  that  is  advancing 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

VII.  Finally,  the  church  must  reach  out  and 
touch  the  whole  life  of  the  community.  The  end 
and  aim  of  all  our  prayer  and  effort  is  the  King- 
dom of  God.  The  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  Chris- 
tian conception  never  means  anything  less  than  a 
righteous  society  on  earth.  We  are  here  then 
to  build  a  Christian  type  of  community  life.  Chris- 
tianity will  never  have  its  perfect  work  till  it  has 
created  a  divine  type  of  human  society.  We  are 
to  win  men  into  Christ  and  to  teach  them  His 
will,  that  they  may  become  workers  in  His  King- 
dom and  living  stones  in  the  walls  of  the  new 
city.  W^e  must  build  character,  teach  the  mind, 
arouse  the  conscience  and  discipline  the  will,  that 
men  may  go  out  and  build  their  character,  their 
intelligence,  their  conscience,  their  faith  into  their 
community  life.  Christian  people  are  to  build  a 
Christian  community.  This  requires  thought,  and 
purpose,  a  plan  and  program.  Every  church,  we 
believe,  should  have  a  constructive  program  for 
serving  the  social  needs  of  its  community,  either 
individually  or  through  the  largest  possible  co- 
operation with  other  agencies  of  human  uplift. 
The  success  of  a  church  is  measured  not  alone  in 
the  additions  to  its  membership,  but  in  the  sweet- 
ened life  of  its  community.  Is  the  community 
becoming  a  more  attractive  place  to  live  in?  Is  it 
becoming  a  safer  place  for  boys  and  girls  to  be 
born  into?  Is  it  becoming  a  better  place  for  men 
and  women  to  serve  God  in?  If  so,  that  church 
is  fulfilling  its  mission  and  is  glorifying  the  Fa- 
ther in  heaven.  As  a  man  who  knows  Christ  sets 
before  himself  the  purpose  of  growing  up  into 
Christ  in  all  things,  as  a  man  and  woman  unite 
their  lives  in  the  work  of  making  a  Christian 
home,  as  a  company  of  believers  unite  their  faith 


9  6  THE   PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

in  the  work  of  spreading  the  Gospel  throughout 
the  world;  so  the  people  of  good  will  in  a  com- 
munity are  to  unite  their  intelligence,  their  con- 
science, their  religion  in  the  work  of  building  a 
Christian  Community.  Any  effort  that  will  help 
any  life  in  any  way  is  the  translation  into  deed 
of  some  article  of  our  Christian   faith. 


DENOMINATIONAL  CHRISTI- 
ANITY. 

By  B.  D.  GRAY,  D.D.,  Atlanta,  Ga, 
Peace. 

There  is  a  universal  cry  for  peace.  Above  the 
din  and  carnage  of  the  Balkan  struggle  the  peace 
call  sounded  throughout  the  earth,  and  the  sav- 
age cruelty  of  the  Mexican  strife  makes  the 
world  sigh,   "How  long?" 

The  money  of  the  millionaire  provides  a  home 
for  The  Hague  Tribunal  at  whose  council  board 
the  chief  topic  is  international  conciliation'  with 
the  view  of  universal  peace.  During  this  year 
of  grace  the  Nobel  prize  of  $40,000  has  been 
awarded  an  American,  Hon.  Elihu  Root,  for  his 
contribution  to  the  peace  of  the  world.  Arbi- 
tration treaties  with  peaceful  purposes  are  be- 
ing negotiated  by  the  United  States  with  the 
leading  nations  of  the   earth. 

The  deepest  need  of  mankind  is  the  "Pax 
Vobiscum"  of  our  Lord.  Like  Him  we  would 
place  the  beatitude  of  sonship  with  God  upon  the 
peace  makers  of  the  world. 

Union. 

Along  with  this  desire  for  peace  is  a  wide- 
spread conviction   for  union,   the  child  of  peace. 

Many  things  are  set  aside  not  because  they 
are  untrue  but  because  they  are  supposed  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  union.  The  things  that 
divide  are  eschewed.  Only  those  that  bring 
union  are  worth  while.  Concession  instead  of 
conviction  is  the  order  of  the  day  in  many 
quarters.  -Creeds  are  decried  and  denominational- 
ism  is  anathematized.  Everybody  is  to  concede 
all  he  can  in  order  to  cure  the  heresy  of  schism. 

A  resultant  of  all  this  in  the  religious  world 

97  :      '"• 


98  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

is  the  magnifying  of  non-denominational  or  in- 
ter-denominational movements.  We  want  some- 
thing that  all  can  come  into,  where  there  is  no 
denominationalism. 

If  denominationalism  will  persist  in  living,  let 
it  be  controlled  by  the  broader  more  liberal  thing, 
un-denominationalism.  Forthwith  a  world  pro- 
gram is  in  order  for  the  marching  hosts  of  Chris- 
tendom, with  an  attenuated  denominationalism. 
That  is  a  trend  of  the  times. 

Now,  over  against  this  is  a  fact  of  history,  name- 
ly, that  movements  have  been  successful  when 
they  have  magnified  convictions.  All  the  reforms 
and  progress  of  the  world  have  been  achieved  by 
men  of  conviction.  Granted  their  fanaticism  has 
Oftentimes  held  sway,  it  remains  true  that  martyrs 
and  heroes  have  conquered  by  conscience.  Let  us 
witness  John  the  Baptist,  Paul,  Chrysostom, 
Savonorola,  Huss,  Wycliffe,  Luther,  Knox,  Wes- 
ley, and  all  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses of  the  eleventh  Chapter  of  Hebrews. 

Jt  may  be  noted  further  that  a  name  is  given 
to  the  champions  of  ideas.  Let  ideas  and  con- 
victions take  possession  of  men  so  that  they  go 
forth  in  their  championship,  presently  they  are 
called  by  the  name  that  designates  these  thoughts. 
The  name  may  be  given  in  derision  or  in  approba- 
tion, but  the  thought  brought  the  name.  Philos- 
ophy, Science,  Painting,  Sculpture  have  made 
progress  by  schools.  The  progress  of  Christianity 
has  been  made  through  denominationalism,  as 
government  has  been  through  parties.  Luther 
and  Wesley  had  no  name  for  their  reforms  at  first 
but  Lutheranism  and  Wesleyanism  soon  became 
names  full  of  meaning  and  slogans  to  conjure 
with. 

.  Honest,  noble,  worthy  denominationalism  spells 
loyalty,  conviction,  courage;  stands  for  something 
and  calls  to  something.  It  conserves  instead  of 
compromising  convictions.  It  wins  victories, 
gains  followers,  makes  conquests. 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  99 

Democracy. 

The  cry  for  peace  and  union  is  not  deeper  nor 
more  strenuous  than  the  well  nigh  universal  call 
of  democracy.  In  Republics  the  democratic  spir- 
it is  penetrating  all  forms  of  government,  com- 
merce and  life.  Trusts  and  combinations  are 
yielding  to  the  inevitable  spirit  of  brotherhood 
and  democracy.  Nor  is  this  human  spirit  con- 
fined to  Republics.  It  thunders  at  the  throne  of 
empires  and  kingdoms.  It  makes  unsettled  the 
head  that  wears  the  crown.  Imperialism  has  no 
footing  in  the  western  world.  The  thrones  of 
Europe,  one  after  another,  are  crumbling  under 
the  test  of  democracy.  The  Czar  of  Russia  is 
feeling  the  teachings  of  Tolstoi.  Almost  within  a 
day  the  Empire  of  China,  isolated,  ignorant, 
proud  and  oppressive,  was  converted  into  a  Re- 
public. 

In  the  religious  realm  democracy  is  in  the  as- 
cendant. Ecclesiastical  hierarchies  are  modifying 
their  constitutions  and  the  laity  as  well  as  the 
clergy  are  coming  into  their  own.  The  spiritual 
equality  of  all  believers  in  Christ  is  a  doctrine 
that  grows  apace. 

The  Day  for  Baptists. 

So  we  have  three  great  thoughts  pervading  the 
human  breast,  giving  utterance  with  voice  and 
pen  throughout  the  earth — Peace,  Union,  Democ- 
racy. These  are  Baptist  assets.  We  love  peace 
and  union  and  democracy.  We  have  been  their 
chief  exponents  in  the  past.  Sometimes  pur- 
chased at  a  great  price,  nevertheless  peace,  union 
and  democracy  are  watchwords  with  Baptists. 
And  now  that  the  world  cries  out  for  the  blessings 
that  will  come  in  the  wake  of  peace,  union  and 
democracy,  the  Baptist  day  has  come.  The  pres- 
ent opportunity  must  be  seized.  We  want  peace 
though  it  come  through  war.  We  want  union  but 
we  want  the  truth  more  and  for  the  right  of  in- 
dividual conscience,  which  is  true  democracy,  we 


100  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY 

are  ready  to  lay  down  our  lives  even  as  did  our 
fathers. 

The  largest  charity  for  others  consistent  with 
loyalty  to  the  whole  round  of  truth  as  we  see  it 
shall  be  extended,  but  we  will  not  sacrifice  prin- 
ciple for  the  sake  of  peace,  nor  be  truant  to  the 
truth  for  the  sake  of  union.  Like  our  Master  we 
small  minister  to  others  and  not  be  ministered 
unto,  but  in  order  to  make  our  ministry  most  ef- 
fective we  will  make  our  own  program  of  service. 
Just  now,  as  probably  never  before,  there  is  need 
on  the  part  of  Baptists  for  proper  accentuation. 
The  primary  and  secondary  accent  we  will  ob- 
serve. On  matters  fundamental  we  shall  stand 
immovable.  On  secondary  matters  we  will  put 
proportionate  stress. 

The  ordinances  of  our  Lord  we  will  hold  invio- 
late and  we  will  not  break  the  mold  of  doctrine  in 
which  they  are  set  and  so  vitiate  the  truth  they 
symbolize.  Our  ambition  shall  be  to  incarnate 
the  truth  in  our  lives  that  the  world  may  know 
that  Christ  lives  because  we  live. 

The  methods  of  our  propagandism  may  be 
many  but  the  Master  of  our  lives  is  one.  We 
seek  His  honor,  we  await  His  command.  His 
Word  is  our  law  and  we  go  forth  to  conquer  in 
His  name. 

Our  Baptist  people  are  great  in  numbers,  are 
growing  in  wealth,  intelligence  and  social  power 
and  in  the  South  we  have  the  unparalleled  oppor- 
tunity of  all  the  ages,  if  we  are  true  to  Him  who 
has  purchased  us  with  His  own  blood.  We  shall 
lay  ourselves  and  our  all  upon  His  altar  and  do 
our  utmost  to  bring  His  reign  throughout  the 
whole  earth. 


EARTHLY  WISDOM  IN  HEAVENLY 
AFFAIRS. 

By  CHAS.  ANDERSON,  Statesville,  N.  C. 

A  rather  high  sounding  subject  for  what  is  in- 
tended to  be  a  very  practical  and  matter  of  fact 
discussion  of  methods  in  the  affairs  of  the  King- 
dom. In  contrasting  many  business  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  church  of  today  with  the  methods  in 
use  by  honest  and  successful  business  men,  one 
cannot  but  be  impressed  with  the  fact,  that  it  still 
remains  true,  "The  children  of  this  world  are 
wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children  of 
light."  As  I  understand  the  parable  of  the  Un- 
just Steward,  he  was  commended,  not  for  his  dis- 
honesty, but  for  so  conducting  his  business  af- 
fairs as  to  win  unto  himself  friends.  Is  not  this 
what  every  first  class  business  man  of  today  is 
honestly  striving  to  do?  He  strives  to  have  every 
department  of  his  business  so  conducted  as  to 
make  friends  and  so  win  patronage. 

This  is  very  far  from  being  true  of  the  strictly 
business  affairs  of  the  church.  There  still  remain 
traces  of  the  old  idea  that  business  must  not  so 
much  as  be  mentioned  in  the  affairs  of  the  King- 
dom, and  that  to  employ  business  methods  found- 
ed on  the  soundest  principles  of  business  would  be 
desecration.  The  idea,  so  long  prevalent,  that  a 
minister  must  not  be  paid  a  definite  salary  but  be 
content  with  whatever  amount  his  people  may 
choose  to  "give"  him,  lingers  in  only  a  few  locali- 
ties; but  there  is  still,  very  widely  extended,  the 
belief  that  a  preacher  who  insists  on  having  a  de- 
finite and  clear  cut  understanding  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  salary,  time  of  payment,  etc.,  is  mer- 
cenary and  is  conducting  himself  in  a  very  unbe- 
coming manner. 

Why  not  recognize  at  once  that  we  are  really 
engaged  in  a  business?     A  just  conception  of  this 

101 


102  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

fact  will  not  lessen  our  regard  for  religion,  but, 
properly  understood,  should  stimulate  our  indus- 
try and  make  each  one  of  us  more  attentive  to 
the  affairs  of  the  church.  This  is  the  day  of  "Big 
Business,"  and  we  sometimes  look  with  awe  at  the 
colossal  business  concerns  of  our  country  and  are 
amazed  at  the  gigantic  intellects  that  have  con- 
ceived enterprises  on  so  magnificent  a  scale.  Be- 
loved, the  great  business  enterprise  of  the  age  is 
not  "Standard  Oil"  or  "United  States  Steel."  The 
greatest  business  enterprise  of  this  or  of  any  oth- 
er age  is  the  business  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
whose  purpose  is  to  extend  the  reign  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  uttermost  portions  of  the  earth,  to 
bring  to  pass  the  conditions  foretold  when  "every 
knee  should  bow — and  every  tongue  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Fa- 
ther." It  is  the  King's  business  and  is  above  all 
business.  Mind  of  man  has  never  yet  been  form- 
ed that  could  plan  on  such  a  scale  as  our  Lord  has 
planned.  While  our  business  men  of  today,  after 
centuries  of  business  development  and  years  of 
smaller  things,  are  gradually  spreading  out  and 
reaching  the  different  nations  of  the  world,  so  be- 
coming world  wide  in  their  business  operations,  in 
the  business  of  the  Kingdom,  from  its  very  incep- 
tion, there  has  been  nothing  less  than  this  con- 
templated, and  its  language,  from  the  first,  was  of 
world  wide  affairs.  True  it  is,  that  for  a  time 
those  to  whom  the  affairs  were  entrusted  could  not 
comprehend  the  scope  of  the  enterprise  and  limit- 
ed their  operations  and  plans,  yet  this  was  be- 
cause they  had  not  followed  the  plain  plans  and 
instructions  of  Jesus  Christ,  whose  language  was 
always  world  wide  in  its  terms.  Let  us  realize, 
once  for  all,  that  we  are  here  on  business  for  the 
King,  and  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Kingdom  in 
such  a  way  as  shall  be  becoming  to  the  dignity  of 
the  enterprise  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  with 
such  sterling  business  sense  and  method  as  to  com- 
mand the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  children 
of  the  world.     On  the  spiritual  side,  there  is,  and 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  1.03 

has  been,  displayed,  such  a  spirit  of  courageous 
faith,  of  willing  sacrifice,  as  to  challenge  the  ad- 
miration of  men.  On  the  side  where  we  touch 
the  world  in  purely  secular  ways  there  has  been  a 
carelessness  and  indifference  to  the  simplest 
business  principles,  that  dimmed  the  glory  of 
spiritual  achievement.  A  wise  business  man  un- 
dertakes to  make  each  department  of  his  business 
supplement  and  assist  the  other.  Is  it  not  time 
we  were  paying  attention  to  this  side  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Kingdom,  that  it  may  add  to  and  en- 
hance the  glory  of  our  purely  spiritual  achieve- 
ments? Let  us  consider  a  few  of  the  most  funda- 
mental principles  underlying  successful  business 
and  note  if  applicable  to  the  church  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

A  business  enterprise  is  to  be  launched  and  car- 
ried on,  its  promoters  hope,  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion. There  is  a  definite  system  worked  for 
the  carrying  on  of  that  business.  A  system 
adapted  to  the  business  and  the  conditions  under 
which  it  is  to  be  operated  and  yet  flexible  enough 
to  admit  of  changes  as  occasions  may  demand. 
Every  local  church  needs  a  definite  system.  In 
some  respects  these  systems  will  differ  in  differ- 
ent localities  and  under  different  conditions.  It 
is  not  my  purpose  to  offer  a  definite  system,  but 
rather  to  insist  that  there  be  a  system  and  that  it 
be  founded  on  correct  business  principles,  for, 
however  much  systems  may  differ,  the  principles 
of  good  business  are  the  same  and  must  underly 
every  successful  business  system. 

The  next  move  is  to  finance  the  business;  by 
which  I  mean  furnish  the  necessary  capital  for  the 
carrying  on  of  the  enterprise.  If  the  business  is 
to  be  a  success  it  must  be  adequately  financed  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  ends  it  has  in  view. 
Here  many  business  enterprises  fail.  Lack  of  vis- 
ion and  dependence  upon  things  that  are  expected 
to  occur,  but  may  not,  frequently  leave  a  business 
crippled  because  inadequately  financed.  It  must 
be  adequate  to  the  ends  to  be  accomplished.     If 


104  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

one  aims  at  only  a  small  business,  only  a  small 
capital  is  needed.  Men  usually  furnish  this  capi- 
tal in  either  cash  or  securities  that  are  available 
as  cash.  In  some  great  enterprises,  where  the 
location  of  the  business  in  certain  localities  will 
be  a  distinct  advantage  to  that  locality,  certain 
gifts  are  made  by  the  people  of  that  particular  lo- 
cality to  secure  the  business.  This  has  been  true 
of  factories,  railroads,  and  other  great  enterprises* 
But  even  these  were  not  in  the  real  sense  gifts, 
but  payments  for  benefits  expected  to  accure. 

In  the  affairs  of  the  Kingdom  there  arises  the 
Question  of  financing  the  movement,  for  it  can  no 
more  be  carried  on  without  the  necessary  finan- 
cial backing  than  any  other  enterprise.  (In  this 
discussion  I  refer,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  local 
church,  as  the  unit  of  our  organization.)  It  is 
needful  that  in  the  matter  of  financing  the  church 
we  be  mindful  of  the  dignity  of  the  enterprise  and 
so  conduct  this  important  part  of  its  business  as 
to  win  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  people 
among  whom  it  is  to  work.  Three  methods  large- 
ly in  use,  generally  a  combination  of  the  three, 
occur  to  me. 

The  first  one  is  what  I  call  the  "Hold  Up"  meth- 
od. Under  this  method  certain  politicians,  busi- 
ness men  and  men  in  various  forms  of  public  life 
are  selected,  and  approached  with  a  request  for  a 
contribution  to  the  church,  although  these  parties 
have  no  connection  with  the  church.  The  natural 
implication  of  such  a  request  is,  if  you  do  not 
"come  across"  I  will  not  vote  for  you  or  trade 
with  you.  A  gentleman  of  Kentucky,  now  in  Con- 
gress, called  me  into  his  office  when  he  was  mak- 
ing his  first  race  for  Congress  and  showed  me  a 
letter  from  a  young  lady,  a  member  of  the  organ 
committee  of  a  Baptist  church  in  a  remote  part 
of  his  district,  asking  for  a  contribution.  This 
gentleman  did  not  know  her  and  neither  did  I. 
He  was  a  Catholic.  He  wanted  me  to  tell  him  how 
much  to  send.  I  said  "nothing."  He  replied,  he 
must  send  something  and  so  enclosed  his  check  for 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  105 

$50.00.  A  clear  case  of  "hold-up."  Your  busy 
men  and  public  men  around  you  can  tell  you  that 
these  experiences  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  This 
is  not  business.  Such  methods  do  not  make 
friends. 

The  second  method  is  that  of  begging.  We 
hear  committees  spoken  of  as  begging  commit- 
tees; certain  persons  in  the  church  spoken  of  as 
good  beggars.  We  speak  of  "giving"  so  much 
to  church  expenses,  pastor's  salary,  etc.  The  Ro- 
man Catholic  idea  of  Mendicancy  has  been  in- 
stilled into  the  church  and  is  hard  to  eradicate. 
The  Kingdom  is  too  great  a  business  to  be  financ- 
ed by  begging  methods.  They  give  false  impres- 
sions of  the  dignity  of  the  work,  low  ideals  in 
planning  the  work.  Let  us  cease  to  talk  of  giving 
to  the  church  and  speak  of  paying  into  the  treas- 
ury of  the  church.  Let  us  drop  the  role  of  beggar 
and  stand  out  as  business  men,  honestly  and  in 
a  business  like  way  financing  the  enterprise.  We 
do  not  confine  our  so-called  begging  to  members 
of  the  church,  but  make  it  real  begging  by  going 
to  those  without.  The  first  thought  that  seems 
to  come  to  a  church  today  when  they  contemplate 
buying  a  new  organ,  is,  "how  much  can  we  get 
from  Mr.  Carnegie?"  I  like  the  spirit  recently 
diplayed  in  one  of  our  churches  when  this  ques- 
tion was  raised:  One  of  the  deacons  arose  and 
said,  "I  move  you,  that  we  buy  the  organ  if  we 
can  pay  for  it  without  help  from  Mr.  Carnegie,  if 
we  cannot,  let  us  wait  until  we  can."  They 
bought  the  organ  finding  themselves  amply  able 
to  do  so.  There  may  come  exceptional  cases  when 
it  will  be  necessary  to  call  for  outside  help,  but 
they  are  very  rare. 

The  third  method  is  God's  method.  "Upon  the 
firstl  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you 
lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered 
him."  This  plan  will  finance  the  Kingdom 
adequately,  in  a  manner  in  keeping  with  the 
dignity  of  the  business,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to 
win  friends  to  the  cause.     I  shall  not  speak  at 


106  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

length  upon  this.  Much  has  been  written  upon 
this  subject.  Suffice  it  to  say,  it  involves  syste- 
matic giving  upon  the  part  of  every  member  of 
the  church,  in  the  proportion  that  God  has  pros- 
pered him.  Work  it  out.  You  can  raise  objec- 
tions to  it  but  the  same  effort  you  expend  in 
finding  fault,  expended  in  the  other  direction, 
will  meet  every  objection  that  can  be  raised.  Ltet 
us  try  God's  plan. 

Having  considered  the  matter  of  financing  the 
Kingdom,  let  us  consider  the  other  side  of  the 
question:  The  expenditure  of  the  money  which 
comes  into  the  Treasury. 

Here  should  be  found  a  system  of  the  strictest 
economy,  administered  in  a  spirit  of  liberality. 
The  two  words,  economy  and  liberality,  are  not 
antonyms.  It  is  possible  to  be  economical  and  yet 
display  a  liberal  spirit  in  the  expenditure  of  every 
dollar.  I  know  a  man  of  moderate  income  who 
has  a  reputation  for  liberality,  yet  in  fact  is  very 
economical.  He  holds  all  expenditures  within  the 
bounds  of  his  income,  but  pays  to  church  or  mer- 
chant with  such  a  cheery  air  of  good  will  that  he 
is  always  spoken  of  as  a  "liberal  and  cheerful 
giver." 

I  know  another  man  of  much  larger  means 
whose  expenditures,  for  the  church  and  for  him- 
self, are  many  times  larger  than  that  of  the  one 
first  mentioned.  He  meets  his  obligations  so  re- 
luctantly and  grudgingly  that  he  is  universally 
considered  a  "stingy  man."  The  liberality  of  the 
first  one  mentioned,  makes  him  friends;  the 
stinginess  of  the  latter  causes  people  to  dislike 
him. 

There  should  be  the  strictest  economy  con- 
sistent with  efficiency.  A  true  business  man  is 
always  ready  to  spend  money  for  properly  in- 
creased efficiency.  Here  is  where  we  too  often 
fail  in  church  matters.  We  think  we  can  get 
along  without  this,  that,  and  the  other.  And  we 
can,  but  at  the  cost  of  efficiency.  This  question 
is  most  glaringly  illustrated  in  the  question    of 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  107 

church  building  and  equipment.  We  have  got- 
ten along  with  the  old  church  so  far  and  we  can 
continue  to  do  so.  No  need  of  Sunday  School 
rooms,  modern  equipment  and  all  of  these  new 
fangled  ideas.  This  is  too  often  the  position  taken 
by  churches.  In  building  we  are  apt  to  begin  to 
cut  down  on  the  architect's  plans,  on  the  plea  of 
economy,  and  generally  at  the  cost  of  efficiency. 
One  of  the  best  investments  the  church  of  today 
can  make,  is  in  the  erection  of  a  comfortable,  at- 
tractive, properly  arranged  and  equipped  church, 
in  a  good  location.  It  attracts  the  outsider  to  you 
and  gives  the  opportunity  of  preaching  to  many 
people  that  otherwise  you  would  never  reach. 

A  church  in  a  shabby,  poorly  located  building 
has  much  the  same  handicap  as  a  mercantile 
business  conducted  in  a  shabby,  poorly  located 
store  building.  In  many  ways  we  are  apt  to  sac- 
rifice efficiency  in  the  interest  of  imaginary  econ- 
omy. 

Then  again,  economy  at  the  expense  of  the  good 
opinion  of  the  public,  or  of  individuals  composing 
that  public,  is  false  economy.  Here  is  an  oppor- 
tunity for  liberality  in  a  way  that  will  make  you 
friends. 

A  man  of  national  reputation  was  asked  to  de- 
liver an  address  at  a  religious  Assembly.  He  re- 
plied he  would  make  no  charge  for  his  services, 
simply  stipulating  that  his  expenses  should  be 
paid.  The  very  economical  agent  in  charge  of  the 
Assembly  ascertaining  the  actual  number  of  miles 
traveled,  figured  out  the  actual  railroad  fare  to 
the  odd  cent  and  mailed  him  check  covering 
same.  It  happened  that  the  gentleman  was 
obliged  to  take  one  meal  en  route  each  way,  and 
we  all  know  there  are  always  some  expenses  in- 
cident to  a  journey  not  covered  by  the  actual  rail- 
road fare,  yet  for  none  of  these  expenses  was 
provision  made.  Brethren,  this  is  very  poor  econ- 
omy. A  minister  was  invited  to  visit  a  church 
really  wanting  his  services.  His  expense  account 
was  called  for.      It    amounted    to    $32.75.      The 


108  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

chairman  of  the  Committee  said,  "there  will  like- 
ly be  some  small  items  you  have  overlooked, 
here  is  $35.00."  A  small  matter  hut  it  made  its 
impression. 

A  church  should  go  on  the  market  and  buy  its 
supplies  at  the  market  price  and  pay  for  them 
promptly.  I  have  never  been  commissioned  to 
buy  for  a  church  that  some  one  did  not  suggest 
that  I  tell  the  merchant  it  was  for  the  church  and 
ask  that  it  be  sold  at  cost.  Why  should  not  the 
church  as  a  self  respecting,  solvent  business  con- 
cern pay  for  what  it  gets?  I  believe  that  church 
and  minister  should  pay,  as  does  the  general  pub- 
lic, for  what  they  buy.  Away  with  the  minister 
who  wends  his  way  from  store  to  store  asking  for 
a  discount  of  ten  per  cent  because  of  his  calling. 
Let  him  be  a  man  among  men  and  honestly  pay 
his  way.  The  church  should  be  particular  in  the 
matter  of  meeting  all  obligations  promptly.  The 
minister's  salary  should  be  promptly  paid  at  the 
times  agreed  upon,  for  this  should  be  a  matter 
upon  which  there  is  a  definite  agreement  before 
the  pastorate  is  begun.  A  clear  understanding 
in  money  matters  often  saves  hard  feelings.  A 
prominent  minister,  in  his  first  pastorate,  was 
sued  for  a  small  debt.  It  developed  that  at  that 
time  the  church  owed  him  an  amount  many  times 
in  excess  of  the  small  amount  for  which  he  was 
sued.  I  have  never  served  a  church  that  burned 
coal  that  did  not  buy  its  coal  from  some  mem- 
ber of  the  church  and  let  the  bill  run,  some- 
times even  until  the  next  fall.  In  one  instance 
the  book-keeper  of  the  firm  was  a  young  man  who 
was  inclined  to  disregard  the  claims  of  religion. 
He  became  so  out  of  patience  with  the  church's 
way  of  ignoring  statements  sent  that  he  would 
curse  every  time  an  order  came  for  coal.  But 
some  one  will  say,  "how  pay  these  bills  promptly 
when  there  is  no  money  in  the  treasury?"  If 
God's  plan  of  financing  the  Kingdom  is  followed 
there  will  generally  be  money  in  the  treasury;  but 
we  shall  not  let  this  important  matter  await  the 


THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY.  109 

attainment  of  our  ideal  in  financing  the  church. 
Even  with  the  ideal  plan  in  force  it  will  some- 
times happen  that  unusual  expenses  will  occur 
at  certain  times  when  insufficient  funds  are  on 
hand.  This  occurs  in  the  best  of  well  regulated 
businesses.  What  does  the  business  man  do?  He 
goes  to  the  bank  and  borrows  the  necessary 
money,  paying  interest  thereon,  and  meets  his  ob- 
ligations. Why  should  not  the  church  do  the 
same?  I  have  also  sometimes  noted  another  ad- 
vantage in  such  a  procedure  on  the  part  of  a 
church.  I  have  sometimes  thought  it  stimulated 
the  deacons  to  more  earnest  effort  in  the  matter 
of  making  collections.  This  promptly  meeting 
obligations  maintains  your  credit.  In  business 
this  is  all  important.  Some  one  has  said  that  all 
business  is  conducted  on  credit.  This  is  so  nearly 
true  that  the  firm  with  a  poor  credit  has  a  very 
difficult  task  in  so  conducting  its  business  as  to 
meet  keen  competition.  The  Mercantile  Agencies 
and  Credit  men  rate  business  firms  as  "Prompt 
Pay,"  "Slow  Pay,"  "Poor  Pay"  and  there  is  still 
another  class  known  as  "Discounters,"  men  who 
pay  cash  and  take  a  discount  on  their  bills  for  so 
doing.  How  would  the  church  be  rated  by  one  of 
these  agencies,  the  church  of  which  you  are  a 
member?  It  should  be  rated  as  "Prompt  Pay."  But 
some  one  will  say  "this  is  all  very  well  for  the 
town  or  city  church  but  the  country  church  cannot 
do  this  because  the  farmer's  money  does  not  come 
in  regularly."  It  is  just  as  good  and  as  necessary 
for  the  country  church  as  for  any  other.  The  coun- 
try churches  are  paying  less  for  maintenance  of 
the  work  in  their  own  communities,  as  well  as 
for  its  spread  abroad,  than  any  other  churches; 
and  yet,  take  them  as  a  whole,  the  farmers  are 
the  most  prosperous  people  we  have  today.  Their 
credit  at  the  bank  is  just  as  good  as  that  of  the 
merchant  or  professional  man.  All  that  is  need- 
ful is  for  them  to  be  awakened  to  the  needs  of  the 
case  and  they  will  and  can  meet  it.  A  Kentucky 
country  church  that  had  always  been  slow  in  pay- 


110  THE  PREACHING  FOR  TO-DAY. 

ment  of  pastor's  salary  and  had  seen  a  procession 
of  discouraged  and  disheartened  pastors  leave 
them,  was  in  Conference  for  call  of  a  new  pastor. 
One  deacon  suggested,  that  as  this  was  the  sea- 
son of  the  year  when  they  all  had  money,  every 
one  pay  in  cash,  his  full  subscription  for  the  year. 
This  was  done  and  the  money  deposited  in  a  bank 
so  each  month  the  treasurer  could  hand  to  the 
pastor  a  check  for  his  salary.  It  can  be  done  in 
country,  village  or  city  where  the  people  have  a 
mind  to  do  it. 

Many  other  thoughts  occur  to  me  but  time 
forbids  that  I  should  take  them  up.  I  have 
undertaken  to  call  to  mind  some  of  the  sim- 
plest and  most  fundamental  principles  of  good 
business  and  show  that  they  are  perfectly  applica- 
ble to  church  affairs.  I  have  taken  only  th-  af- 
fairs of  the  local  church  in  its  local  relations.  Its 
connection  with  the  great  co-operative  work  of 
Missions,  Education  and  Benevolences  form  a  sub- 
ject for  a  more  extended  discussion.  We  see  be- 
fore us  the  great  waste  in  large  interest  pay- 
ments annually  that  would  be  entirely,  or  for  the 
most  part  unnecessary,  would  we  but  adopt  busi- 
ness methods.  The  same  principles  in  relation  to 
these  affairs  will  work  out  the  solution.  After 
all  the  church  that  puts  business  principles  into 
its  purely  local  affairs  will  do  the  same  in  co- 
operative work.  In  speaking  of  the  work  of  the 
Kingdom  as  a  business  I  have  meant  in  all  rever- 
ence simply  to  assert  that  it  is  necessary  to  be- 
stow upon  the  work  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  at 
least  as  much  good,  consecrated,  common  sense  as 
we  display  in  earthly  business  and  that  we  give 
to  it  a  position  of  dignity  and  prominence,  at 
least  equal  to  that  of  our  own  business  concerns. 
Get  the  idea  that  your  God  is  no  beggar  and  can- 
not be  pleased  with  the  lowering  of  His  Church 
to  the  plane  of  a  mendicant  seeking  alms,  where 
it  has  a  right  to  "collect  His  dues  from  the  stew- 
ards He  has  placed  in  charge  of  His  vineyard." 


